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HEAVY M

THE MOVIE REVli
COLOUR Picrtyi

BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IV

THE RETURN OF FANTASY FEMALES

YYE INTERVIEW FANTASY DIRECTOR

MICHAEL ARMSTRONG *

GENESIS OF A MOVE COMPATJY i

THE HISTORY OF AMICUS PARTI .

PLUS FEATURES ON PRODUCER I DIRECTOR
WILLIAM CASTLE. 19505 FILM POSTERS. * ! '

ROLE-PLAYING GAMES. ATE LOTS MORE * ;

SHOCK TREAT/^ENT .

THE NEW FANTASY MUSICAL FROM THE ROCKY HORROR TEAM

DtttfnlliMKkM

SlfMOlMfV

EMvnil AiMtanc*

Ti» NMipaMi ft Nifil taMadi

■j -» - . j ^ — ■» MM

Whm u lftwii

JotMftrocnwt
Torty CriNitv
PtMlEftNards
Arthur Eftts
Stfvt JKkaon
AlviJanM
MAtMwwi
Al«t Murdoch
T.wV

I PublnW: Stan Lee

Volume 4, Number 4 I

STARBURST LETTERS 4

OUR READERS WRITE. SEE IF YOUR LETTER IS
AMONG THIS COLLECTION.,

THINGS TO COME 6

ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT. . . AND
SOME THATISNl, COMPILED BY OUR
GLOBETROTTING REPORTER TONY
CRAWLEY.

WILLIAM CASTLE 12

THE FIRST PART OF OUR FOUR CHAPTER
LOOK AT THE CAREER OF THE LEGENDARY
HORROR FILM PRODUCER.

CHRISTMAS QUIZ 14

THE RETURN OF OUR EVER-POPULAR
SEASONAL QUESTION AND ANSWER
SESSION.

WOLFEN 17

PHIL EDWARDS REVIEWS THE NEW HORROR
MOVIE FROM WOODSTOCK DIRECTOR
MICHAEL WADLEIGH.

SHOCK TREATMENT
20

STARBURST REVIEWS THE LATEST FILM FROM
THE TEAM WHO BROUGHT YOU THE ROCKY
HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

FANTASY FEAAALE
GALLERY 22

ANOTHER SEASONAL TREAT. A
COLLECTION OF PICTURES OF YOUR
FAVOURITE FANTASY LADIES . . .

MICHAEL
ARMSTRONG 26

ALAN JONES TALKS TO THE DIRECTOR OF
THE GORY HORROR MOVIE MARK OF THE
DEVIL ABOUT HIS ILL-FATED PROJECT, THE
ENCHANTED ORCHESTRA.

HEAVY METAL 32

MOVIES ON BMM 49

WE EXAMINE ANOTHER BATCH OF BMM
RELEASES INCLUDING SUPERMAN, SATURN
3 AND BUCK ROGERS.

IT'S ONLY A MOVIE 50

WE LOOK AT THE NEW SCIENCE F/CTION
ANIMATED CARTOON ADAPTED FROM THE
MAGAZINE OF THE SAME NAME.

HISTORY OF AMICUS
36

PHIL EDWARDS AND AUN JONES TRACE
THE HISTORY OF THE FILM PRODUCTION
COMPANY THAT RIVALLED HAMMER FOR
OUTPUT DURING THE SIXTIES AND
SEVENTIES.

POSTER GALLERY 43

A FULL-COLOUR LOOK AT SOME OF THE
POSTERS FROM THE GOLDEN YEARS OF
SCIENCE FICTION— THE 1950s.

JOHN BROSNAN TRAINS HIS SIGHTS ON
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, THE JAMES
BOND PICTURES AND MICHAEL WINNER.

BOOK WORLD 52

STARBURSrS REGULAR ROUND-UP OF ALL
THE LATEST IN FANTASY BOOKS,
INCLUDING CHRISTOPHER EVAN'S THE
INSIDER AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S NEW
ANTHOLOGY.

ROLEPIAYING
GAMES 54

GAMES WORKSHOP'S STEVE JACKSON
PRESENTS THE FIRST IN AN IRREGULAR
SERIES OF ARTICLES ON FANTASY GAMING.

TV ZONE 56

TISE VAHIMAGI LOOKS AT THE SUPERHERO
TV SERIES THE GREEN HORNET (STILL
UNSEEN IN BRITAIN) WHICH CO-STARRED
THE LATE BRUCE LEE.

THE TRUTH ABOUT
ALIEN 58

STARBURST TALKS TO ONE OF THE
PRODUCERS OF ALIEN, DAVID GILER,
ABOUT THE FILM.

A Maryel Comics Production

sraKMST iflnrai.

BEUERIATE...

I thought you might be interested
to learn that John Boonnan has
won another award. The somewhat
less-than-well-known Celtic Rim
Festival held at Theatre Ardudwy
Harlech in August 1981 awarded
first prize (what this was is un-
known) to his "fantasy classic of
Celtic originality and mythology,"
What? Excalibtir? No, actually it's
Zardoc. Possible better never than
late but there we are. Zardoc is
listed as 1973— so is this long-
awaited award some kind of record
for films?

P.J. Page,
Wales.

HMnoC PAI2F^7 plol- Th® instance which sticks in Personally, I like the first half of

wuncr/iuco. my mind is the idiot who gave away Oudand better than the second

firstly, congratulation (W the new- punch-line to the mas- half, which was quite predictable

look, expanded StarbursL Having
been an enthusiastic reader for
over two years now, it's been in

We think that it would actually be
more complimentary to win an
award after all this time. After all.
what the Celtic Film Festival was
actually saying is that there hasn't
been a film since 1973 more de-
serving of an award . ..we think!

THREE POINTS

first thing; in the wake of Pip
Reeve's letter (Starbiifst 39), I think
it's a good idea to print con-
tradictory reviews of films where a
great difference of opinion exists. I
thought Excalibur was an excellent
film, even if it wasn't Malory (and
since when have film-makers ever
worried about being faithful to their
sources?) But John Brosnan's
comments, though interesting,
didn't put me off a repeat viewing
by any means.

Second thing: it's good to. see
Blake’s 7 back on the box, although
clearly it's too early to say how
Soolin and the new ship will work
out. I was a little disappointed that
Cally's death was skirted over so
casually — after all her time with the
crew you'd expect some of them to
display a bit more sorrow, parti-
cularty in view of the way relation-
ships were built up in the last series
(and I'm thinking especially of
Tanith Lee's Sarcophagus episode).

I dare say they could be excused on
the grounds that they had more
pressing problems. However ...
the second episode was, I think,
one of the best (and funniest) we've
S66n

Third thing; I didn't expect
anyone would produce an SF media
mag to beat Starlog, but they didi
Well done!

Ms K. Woodhams
London SE24

teresting and refreshing to see
Starburst grow into the quality
magazine we have today. But let's
not stop here — more pages and a
cover price of £1 can't be far off!

Otherwise, the mag is great. The
permanent Starburst crew are
always a pleasure to read, parti-
cularly the film and tv columns.
However, I hope we haven’t seen
the last of Ttse Vahimagi's tv
flashbacks (such as his compre-
hensive guide to The Outer
Limits).

Keep up the Blake's 7 and
Doctor VIAo coverage, despite
them having their own magazines.

And, onto two recent films.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of
the best movies to hit me for ages.
The atmospheric, classy direction is
reminiscent of Close Encounters
whilst Lucas' pacing and direction
mix the best of Star Wars to
produce a fast-moving, simplistic
film. Okay, it has nothing to say, but
it is enjoyable! Let's hope Lucas and
Spielberg can join together again.

And to Excalibur. I don't agree
with John Brosnan that Clash of
the Titans is better (the effects
were shoddy in places with a bland
script), but I do agree that it could
have been a bit shorter and that the
spoken word didn’t quite match the
epic quality of the action. As a
spectacle, it was a superb fantasy.
But it wasn’t perfect by any means.
Still, let's hope it encourages more
films in this genre. Which reminds
me, when is Conan to be
released?

Keep up the
magazine.

the punch-line to
ter-swordsman-in-arab-market- and slow. But I think Outland
^ place gag about two weeks after deserves some credit for being the
’ the release of Raiders of the Lost first film since Soyfont Green *-
Ark.

However, just because news-
paper film critics are lacking in the
gentlemanly graces of Starburst

the

futuristic

competently tackle
detective theme.

The rest of the magazine was
interesting as usual, but before

reviewers, it doesn't necessarily anyone writes in to complain that

follow that anything they like is
rubbish. I'm talking about Outland.

It was obvious from the first
trailer that Outland bore elements
of High Noon and being obvious,
90% of newspaper reviewers
dubbed this film "High Noon in
Space." However, to propagate the
delusion that Outland is a futuristic
remake of High Noon would be
ridiculous as saying that The Eagle
has Landed is a remake of Wont the
Day Well and I was Monty's
Double.

There is no police element in
High Noon. In fact, the hired killers
appear during the title sequence
and the film is concerned with Gary
Cooper's attempts to drum up sup-
port for the big gunfight he knows

you should be sf from cover to
cover and nothing else. I’d like to
register my appreciation of It's Only
a Movie. This column is the first
thing I turn to each issue. I find it
constantly entertaining and I've
almost forgiven John Brosnan for
having a go at The Invaders.

Graeme Bassett,
Grimsby,
Humberside.

Alan McKenzie replies: "I think
you're being a little unfair, Graeme.
You're putting words in my mouth
then taking me to task for them.
Nobody said anything newspaper
critics like is rubbish. I only
registered a personal disappoint-

will take place when Jack Miller meet with the film Outland. But
steps off the noon train; and comes John Brosnan is beaming from ear
looking tor revenge. to ear... "

DOCTOR WHO
REPEATS

world's best

Michael Robb,
Chelmsford,
Essex

Conan looks set
release in the
Michael. As for
anyone's guessi

for an Caster
United States,
over here — it's

Starburst is actually a fantasy
media mag, Ms Woodhams! But
thank you nonetheless.

CRITICS CRITICISED

I was pleased to see in the latest
Starburst letter column (issue 39)
that Alan McKenzie had decided to
take the mainstream film critics to
task for their ignorance. My own
particular pet hate is the type of
harangeur masquerading as re-
viewer who, in the course of making
some obscure political point,
blithely discloses about half the

I've just received Starburst 37. As I Though in our own defence, we do
expected, it is brilliant, wonderful, give complete coverage to the
etc. Doctor Who phenomenon in our

But . . . not one word on BBC2's sister magazine Doctor IMio
upcommg The Five Faces of Doctor Monthty. The first episode of An
Who. Surely the re-screening of the Unearthly Child is to be screened at
first ever Doctor Who story de- 5.50pm on 2nd November. The

served a little mention? By the way,
any idea what stories will follow An
Unearthly Child?

Tim Munro,
Dalton,
Huddersfield.

You're right. Tim. We should have
mentioned the Doctor Who repeats.

stories that follow will be The
Krotons (Patrick Troughton as the
Doctor) Carnival of Monsters (Jon
Pertwee), The Three Doctors
(William Hartnell). Patrick
Troughton and Jon Pertwee) and
Logopolis (Tom Baker and Peter
Davison). And still on the subject of
Doctor IMio . . .

Please send all comments and criticisms to:
Starburst Letters, Starburst Magazine,
Marvel Comics Ltd, Jadwin House,
205-211 Kentish Town Road,
London, NW5, United Kingdom.

Like many discerning people I am a
great fan of Doctor Who.

The most shocking horror story
I've heard in recent years concerns
the shameful destruction of English
heritage. Namely, the destruction
of old Doctor Who tapes by the
BBC.

Without being facetious, I must
call this irresponsible.

However, what's done is done.
What I want to know is, if there is
any way to save the episodes that
still exist, before they too get
pulverised for lack of space to store
them in.

Is there any organisation or in-
dividual devoted to the saving of
Doctor Who for posterity? Because
with luck most of Tom Baker's and
Jon Pertwee's still exist and can be
saved.

Just think of all the William
Hartnell and Patrick Troughton
stories that are now lost forever.
Let's not allow this to happen again.

Perry Armstrong,
Lower Hutt,
New Zealand.

Above: A xene from the gritty CeroHne Murtro-sterring horror movie
Meniac. See “Gore Fens Strike Back“. Oppoiite page: A scene from the
Three Doctors story, repeeted in the BBC's Five Faces of Doctor Who.

You are not alone in your concern.
Sue Malden of the BBC Archives
has been striving diligently to
complete the BBC's njn of Doctor
Who episodes. A complete run-
down on the episodes held and the
work of the BBC Archives is pub-
lished in this year's Doctor IMko
tWnfor SpodH available from all
good newsagents. Or if in difficulty
see our ad on page 62 this issue.

GORE FANS STRIKE
BACK

I never did like Tony Crawley's
thoughts and reviews but in issue
37, he just shined in his true colours
as a pig-headed, two-faced *!*%!! I
I'm referring to his discussion with

Judd Hamilton in Things To Come
about Maniac— "because there is
tragically an audience for it, what
you should do is make a movie
about them . . ."

Judd; You're right. Maniac is a
bad piece of blood and gore. We'll
have a big success from an
audience that shouldn't exist. Now
I'd like to make a film about that
audience ... you know they think
this guy's a freak . . .

Crawley: What about them!

Judd: toctlyl

So that's ^at Tony thinks about
cinemagoers, horror film fanatics
and readers of Starburst We're the
freaks! When the truth of the
matter is that it's the producers
who chum out trash like Maniac
who are freaks and that includes

Judd Hamilton I

Tony may not have a high regard
for us followers of film fantasy but
that gives him no right to insult,
ridicule and generally imply that
people who watch horror films such
as Dead of the Dead, Friday The
13lh or indeed even Maniac are a
bunch of gibbering looneys. When
he starts patronising the very
audience it just goes to show what
a really bad film critic he obviously
is.

Derek Gray,
Aberchirder,
Scotland.

Tony Crawley replies: “John
Brosnan would probably agree with
die last line, but hopefully little else.
At no time did Judd Hamilto

{bravely running down his own film)
or myself discuss Starburstors by
name or inference — none of whom
had seen Maniac at that time.
Rather than being gibbering
looneys, freaks (witness The York-
shire Ripper, Lennon's killer and
Reagan's near-assassin) never
appear to be what they are. The
same can be said of the recent glut
of movies issued in and despoiling
the name of horror and fantasy.
bad film critic, therefore, is the one
failing to label these films for the
rip-offs they are — and all the more
so given today's high cinema
prices. But Mr Gray can't have it
both ways. If he thinks certain hkns
are trash, what else can one call
their audiences — no matter which
magazine they devour monthly. And
there are likely to be as many freaks
among our readers as in any other
mass group of people, whatever
they are: football supporters, pot-
holers, windsurfers, cricket fans,
fox hunters or journalists."

We regret that we cannot enter into
correspondence with individual
readers. There just aren't enough
hours in the day!

PubtahDd monthly by Morvo! Comfet
Ltd., Jtdwin Hou$$. 205-211 Kontith
Tottm Rood. London NWS. Engtond. AH
photogrtphk motoriol m copyright C
SBC, NBC, ABC. CBS. ITC. IBA.
OHumbio, Now RoNm, Ronk. Twontioth
Contury-Fox Unftod Artitn. Womor
Brot. Poeomount. Oppidon. MWr Disnoy
Productions. Toto Audios. CIC. EMI,
MGM. MCA-Univofsot lunloss othorw is o
stotodi ond oppoors with thoir kind
permission. Ml romoining motoriol is
copyright C 1981 Morool Comks Ltd, o
sutsidiory of Codonco Industriot. Stor-
burst is 0 trodsmork ond trodsnomo of
Msrvol Comics Ltd. Miilo contributions
sro oncourogod. dw pubHshor connot bo
hold rosportsiblo for unsoHcitod monu-
scripts or*d photos. Ml httoft sont ro
Storburst will bo considorod for
publicotion. for disploy odvortising
contoct: Jono McKortrio. 5// Spoco So los
S Morkoting. 6 Bomors Mows, London
W1, Engisnd. 01-580-9012 Printed in tho
United Kingdom.

fucher^

oiran

oooooooo

B9TTmQUr>na-DIQ{^HOCDETT

Ikma nCoME^

STAR TREK— THE
TRUTH

Paramount seems at last to have sorted
its act out and the news about Star Trek
It is that it's not for television at all. (Or
not until it's been a cinema hit and sold
to the box). You can believe this. It
comes from the horse's mouth ... no
higher up the ladder of control at
Paramount than the company's presi-
dent, Michael D. Eisner. he, "Con-
trary to all the unconfirmed reports and
speculations about this project. Star
Trek II has always been intended as a
full-length motion picture for release in
the US and Canada as well as the
international territories." He also in-
sisted the movie would star both
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy,
despite the rumours about Nimoy pull-
ing out. (He is acting, though, in the long
Golda tele-biopic of Golda Meir with
Ingrid Bergman).

Of course, things can change ...
because Eisner did say that the film
would be released by CIC as well ... and
as events have it, that's not so
anymore . . .

ENTER: UPL

The Siamese-twinning of top Hollywood
companies continues with the not-al-
together shock news that CIC is a thing
of the past. I'm sure you're not overly
interested in what is really boring film
trade news, but because od the sale of
United Artists to MGM, and the fact
that UA is also a distributor, while MGM
distributes through the CIC chain,
which already links Paramount and
Universal (you are still with me, of
course), a new distribution company
was required. And that's what's hap-
pened. So, from here on, all MGM,
Paramount, Universal and United
Artists movies will be distributed
around the world by a new combine
called . . . United International Pictures.
UfP. What with Columbia EMI and
Warner Brothers already together in
another distribution deal in most Euro-
countries this news leaves the other
two majors alone out there. 20th Cen-
tury-Fox and Disney. And there's talk of
them combining operations ... in
Britain at least. Whether this is good
news for the filmgoer is a matter for
lengthy discussion. Some good little
films do get lost in the idrush.

ALVES INVADES

After all his sterling work as production
designer on such films as Closa En-
ctMMten of Iko Third Kind and Escape
from New York, Joe Alves has landed a
directing assignment. The movie . . 7 A
remake of the 1953 sf classic hnradars
from Mars (see Stwborst 13).

The fascinating aspect about this
piece of news is that it's yet another duction designer, working on films like
example of history repeating itself. The Gone With the Wind and Thief of
original Invaders movie was directed by Bagdad. His directing debut came with
the late, great William Cameron the 1938 classic Things to Come after
Menties. Men^ies himself was a pro- which this very column is named.

NANCY'S OUT

Minor surgery has forced Brian De
Palma's wife, Nancy Allen, out of the
very film she needs so badly— Endan-
ger^ Species, originally called
S.W.O.C. That's the one that is not
helmed by hubby but Alan Rudolph.
Needing time to recuperate after the
operation, Nancy has to pass her role
over to Joseph Willaims— one of Tobe
Hooper's stars in the Steven Spielberg
production of Poltergeist

KAREN'S IN

The other female Allen we all tend to
drool about at the Starberst
offices— Raidert' Karen Allen — has

lately completed her first movie role
since the Lucasberger. She's Captarod
in Ted KotchefTs new him. Co-stars
include Michael O'Keefe (from The
Greet Santini. not the new Tartan),
Peter Fonda, Jimmy Woods and Michael
Sachs, who hasn't been seen enough
since Slaaghtarhoese Five and Spiel-
berg's Sagarfand Express. Karen has, I
hear, about two more movies to get
hnished before reporting for
Raiders sequel in '83.

iT .

the

Should be interesting to see how Joe
tackles his remake. Though we think he
should change his name to Joe
Cameron Alves . . .!

€mn^leilliY fony iMowteyi

C FFST * recommendation); Jeff Fell Moon High from Larry Cohen;

^ , Lieberman's JMt Before Dawn; Tony Sergio Oardano's Hell o( the Uviet

m afraid, there's more horror Maylam's American debut, The Bern- Deed sheer hell, I gather), and rather

eleventh Paris Festival of Science D'Amato is sending two from Italy, Blue Memoirs of a Sorvivor. This one stars
Fiction and the Fantastic. Fans of the Holocaost and Antropophagoos. Spain Julie Christie and. as we saw in Cannes,
gross and the gory are too late to book is repped by Paul Naschy'sRetom of the is neither fantastic nor fantastique.

FANTASY SPECIAL

British casting director Irene Lamb has
obviously had her fill of fantasy movies
just lately. (Is there any other kind
around?) And she's liked what she's
seen. Just look at the actors she's
gathered together for the American tv-
movie of hranhoe, currently shooting for
six weeks at Pinewood studios. James
Mason from, if nothing else, Salom's Lot
. . . Sam Neill, the final Damien.in Tho
RmI Conflict, not forgetting his odd,
very odd, French horror. Possession . . .
Julian Glover, this year's Bond nasty in
For Yonr Eyes Only . . . and John Rhys-
Davies, the great (224lbs) Welsh Arab,
Sallah, in Raidors of tho Lost Aih. Irene
obviously relaxes with radio and tv, too.
Her hranhoe, jumping into Roger
Moore's old telly series role, is Danger
UXB's Anthony Andrews— and also in|
the film is dear old Michael Hordern
from Radio Four's half-year-long serial of
Lord of the Bings. Must be some rare
old stories on that set. Douglas Canfield
directs the movie— which like producer
Nonnan Rosemont's other telly re-
makes (Littte Lord Faontolroy, All Qniot
on tho Wostom Front A Tale of Two
Citios, etc) will be released to cinemas
in Britain and Europe.

STATE'S STATE

I have good news from West German
wunderkind director Wnn Wenders. His
film about the filming of an sf film (you
still with me?) is all over bar the
shouting in the editing rooms. This is
the movie he was due to have made
straight after his second American
debut for his new godfather, Francis
Coppola. However, the second
film— Trap Door with Chris Reeve —
never got going, and indeed godfather
Francey first wanted a lot of additional
lensing done on Wim's debut in the
States, HaoMOon. And so, with more
free time on his hands than first planned,
Wenders was able to split to Portugal
and Stata of Things. He shot for a
fortnight in Hollywood as well — on a
budget that must have made Coppla
blanch. A mere $800,000— collected in a
week and with no script to show the
bankers, eitherl

Interesting little tale it is, too.
Wenders' story (scripted by an
American in Paris, Robert Kramer) has a
film unit suddenly strapped for funds
while shooting a real B of a B-movie on
sunny location. (What they're making is
a re-tread of Allan' Dwan's sf quickie.
The Most Dangeroes Man Alivo (1961),
by the way). French actor Patrick
Bachau plays the director, with that
grizzled veteran Hollywood director
Sam Fuller as his cinematographer.
Others in the cast include Allen
Goonwitz lex-Garheld), Paul Getty Jr
and the once-upon-a-time Andy Warhol
superstar. Viva. Judging by the speed
which Wenders has shot it (with top
French cameraman Henri Alekan), State
of Things could be on release before his
Hollywood debut, HammoO, is even
adjudged ready by Coppola.

A talection of
pottar art for
soma of tha
Hammar horror
films on show at
tha Paris Fantasy
Film Fastival. At
top laft, tha
promotional art-
work for tha
Linda Blair
vahicia Hail
Nii^t I wondar
Ifsha avargats
fad up with
horror movlas.

WhimbswoCoiih

MOREMAYLAM

. . . and mayhem? With his Hollywood
debut behind him, British director Tony
Maylam (Riddle of the Sands,
remember?) has swiftly set up two
more films over there. Rrst he has
Anthony Perkins starring in The Pictara
of Dorian Gray (I was about to say in the
umpteenth version, but surprisingly,
the Oscar Wilde tale has still only been
filmed the twice, with Hurd Hatfield in
1945 and pretty Helmut Berger in the
sexploitation version of 1974). Then
Maylam really joins the big boys—
directing Passion Play, another book
from the Being Thors author, Jerry
Kosinski Central character, like Kosinski,
is a polo player. But very carnal ... Not
quite the movie to premiere before
Prince Charles or his Dad. Oh, I don't
know though.

THING III?

Hard on the heels of John Carpenter
and Tho Thing company, British director
John Irvin is Arctic bound. For another
kind of sf thingie. The film is kalaad,
scripted by Chip Proser from the John
Brimmer novel, and co-produced by
Norman Jewison and Patrick Palmer.
They're the couple who gave Irvin his
big movie break with Dogs of War after
his tv success with John Le Carre's
Tinker. Tailor, Soldier Spy. I doubt if
there'll be much work for Rob Bottin
however on this caper. The thing found
in the Irvin film is human.

CHART

PREDICTIONS

Some months yet before my Fantasy
Rim Chart slide-rules is required, but
the '81 box-office winners are obvious,
insurmountable between now and the
end of the year. Raiders of tfce Lost Ark
romps it having earned 125 million
dollars in America alone by September.
Soparman II is in 2nd place, about 24
mill' behind. The surprise, up until the
last figures, is that Bond is way down in
sixth place, beaten by the likes of such
rubbish as The Caaaoaball Ran and
Snipes, and Alan Alda's rather better
crafted Fear Seatons. Tarzan, Tko Apa
Man (and considering Bo's acting, that
is a real fantasy moviel) and Clash of the
Titans aren't far behind, which is fair . . .
isn't Bo Oerek one of Harryhausen's
rather better model efforu? I expect
the For Yoor Eyes Only figures to be
bigger when the world returns are
counted. It's been a smash just about
everywhere and has just opened in
France, on all three main circuits (which
has never happened before) with a total
of 166 prints!

other forgettables . . . Well, Hemran is
alive and well and living, where else, but
LA. He has a new company. And a new
movie. Cobra and Crocodile. Or was it
Crocodile making Cobra?

SON OP SCHLOCK

A real piece of horror schlock is doing
overly good business around American
cinemas. (Just goes to show, they've no
taste at all). It's called Doctor Boickor.
His MO, says the hype, is for Medical
Deviate. The ad driwel goes on: "He is a
depraved sadistic rapist. A bloodthirsty
killer. And he makes house calls." HmmI
Something about the distributors rings
a bell. Aquarius Releasing Inc, of New
York. But didn't they ... yes indeed . . .1
That's the outfit which first released
Deep Throat in the States. It's not on|y
porrro dinctors turning to graphic
horror, then.

MORE SCHLOCK

And still John Landis has nothing to do
with it . . . That alleged director from
Spain, Juan Piquer Simon (Soporsooic
Man. er all is preparing Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's The Corse of the Pharaohs as a
Spanish— British co-production. He's
also talking turkey with Peter Cushing
for it. He'll probably get him, too. He did

for his Jules Verne movie.

Wood. While the chat goes on,
into Sea Dovils from another Verne
book. No big stars this time. Just a big
title. In Spanish it reads; Los Diablos
del Mar ... very— but very— dose to
the Spanish title for Jaws.

QUICK TAKES

Believe it or not, Robin Williams is due
to have a baby in the new season of
Mark and Mindy ... Stephen King's
newie, Cu/o, shot to the top of
America's best-sellers, while his Fin-
starter remains No 1 in what the New
York Times called the mass-market lists
(I think that means us, folks!) ...
Adrienne Barbeau (Mrs John We-know-
who) due out in, or with Wes Craven's,
Tho Swaosp Thing around March. Her
co-star is BBC's one-time Oracula, Louis
Jourdan ... Chris Reeve's co-stars in
Monsignore, in Rome, now include
Genevieve Bujokf, from Cooia, and that
suave Spaniard Fernando Rey from the
French Connection movies ... And
what— oh hang on. I'm just taking a call
from the gynecological unit— WHAT?
Oh really. You sure? Okay. Well, it
seems that Morfc's baby will be bulky
comic Jonathan Winters. Oikian kids
ere, well, bom that way, it seems. Full
growni

DEATH GIGGLE

Add one more horror-film spoof to the
growing list. Tim Bond is directing a
tv-movie in Canada (for cinemas abroad)
send-up called Till Death Us Do Part
He'll have to change the title for Britain,
of course. His stars are not Warren
Mitchell and co, but Montreal beauty
Helen Hughes and Stacy Keach's
brother, James— he who dubbed the
literally unspeakable Klinton Spilsbury
in Lew Grade's latest flop, Tho Legend
of the Lone Ranger.

NESSIERETURNS

Never did learn what happened to David
Frost's once-uporva-prime movie plans
for a film about Nessie. Too latel He's
been beaten to it Hollywood had dug up
Nessie (well, they're running out of
summer camps tales, I guess). Tho Loch
Ness Horror is currently before
cameras, real close to home, at Lake
Tahoe, (>lifomia . . . with a second-unit
at the real Loch Ness. Looks like being a
family movie. It's co-written and
directed by Larry Buchanan, produced
by Jane Buchanan and stars Barry
Buchanan . . .

TITLE TANGLE

Louise Retcher's down-under creepy.

Allen pal, Michael Murphy, young Dan Mes s iah el Evil. That movie, with the
Shore and another of our exports to LA, always very fetching Marianna Hill, is
and now it seems New Zealand, Rona now on release as Dead Peopfa.

Dead Kids, is now called Siraaga Lewis. Reason for the title switch Not much of a tum-on title for me
Bahavioar. it figures. It isl Her co-stars similar happening for George Lucas Hey, where you goin' tonight? Oh, I'm
remain the same (well, the film is long writer pals Willard Huyck and Gloria off to see Dead People . . . Hahl
since finished you see). They're Woody Katz' debut as director-producer.

KING COHEN

Remember Herman Cohen? Oh c'mon,
of course you do. How could anyone
forget the instigator of I was A Teen a ge
Warewoff (1957) the dreaded Konga
(about as tame as the dance; in 1961),
Black Zoo (1963), Barsaik (1968) and

JbiumsTaCmKE

STEVE'S SECRET

In total secrecy (or so you thought, huh.
fella?) Steven Spielberg has finally been
shooting the little kids’ film he vvas
supposed to follow CE3K with. But then,
a little thing called 1941 erupted in his
psyche and damn nearly wrecked him.
George Lucas and Francois Truffaut
kept on at Steve to make his small
nrovie. So that's what he's doing. It's
called A Boy's Life.

... & NOT SO
SECRET

Although he never went to the Uni-
versity of Southern California's film

school, like many of the other "movie
brats", Steven Spielberg has lately
donated a hefty $SOO,0(X) to help pay for
the University’s new music-sound
stage. He's not alone in such largesse,
either. George Lucas, the school's star
pupil, has chipped in as much as S4.7
million for the new USC cinema-tv
complex (it's damn near a complete
studio in itself now). Other contributers
helping to meet the $7 million bill in-,
dude Jack Nicholson. StarTrek director
Robert Wise and even singer Helen
Reddy. The reason these names aren't
so quiet about their praiseworthy
generosity is that another S7 mill' is
needed ... and the Hollywood studios,
counting their summer profits with

glee, just couldn't care less.

Lucas says he's "rabid" about their
indifference. Says George in an un-
characteristic outburst. "The studios do
not realise that people have to be
trained to be effective, no matter how
talented they are. They think yodng film-
makers are created by agents in a back
room with a lump of cl^l I knew nothing
about making films before I got to USC
... It made me what I am today. I want
to be able to grow some more film-
makers like that.

Says Steven, " Who's going to take
our place? It's just silly for the industry
not to replenish the well. If they don't
look to the future, who will?"

The USC school needs the money

because it's had much the same equip-
ment for 42 years. "It's like a dnema
ghetto," adds Steven. "It’s the sort of
like teaching kids to fly in the jet age
with old bi-planes."

Hollywood's view seems to be so
what? The stuff worked okay on Lucas.
Coppola, Milius and Co. Backward
thinking by the so-called majors.

TELLYLOLLY

Merli and Mindy's tele-budget jumped
up another $25,0(X) from $3(X),0(X). Must
be all that baby food for Jonathan
Winters . . . The Incredible Hulk, not
Killed off after all, is now among the
most expensive tele-weeklies at
$650,00 a throw— just like would you
believe. The Love Boat, and The Little
Hoese on the Prairie. The real winners,
Dallas and Loe Grant cost just a
smidgen less— $625,000.

BRADBURY MOVIE

All the chat the hype and the
paperwork is finished and Ray Brad-
bury's Soinofbiag Wicked This Way
Conie s is finally being shot at Disney.
Classy production too. Our Jack Clayton
directs from Ray's scenario, with a cast
headed by Jason Robards, now over his
jungle-fever illness that made him leave
Werner Hertog's FitzcarraMe in Peru.
Also in the acting team, Britain's
Jonathan Pryce. The movie is produced
by Kirk Douglas's third son into movies,
P^er Vincent Douglas.

TAKES //

After a great year, what with Aherod
Stains, The Janitor and now Larry
Kasdan's steamy Body Haat, William
Hurt— the star find of '81— kicks off '82
opposite his idol, Jimmy Cagney (aged
83) in Ivan Passer's Tho Eagle ol
Broadway ... Look out, Mel Brooks
tells me he’s writing a space comedy
next. His provish title is Galactic
M ish ag as oh. go ask your Jewish
friends for the translation . . . Before
tackling the late Robert Shaw's role in
The Sting sequel, burly Dlly Reed is
delivering the Death Bits to, or with,
Peter Fonda, up in Toronto . . . Doug
Trumbull’s big sf movie. Brainstorm,
recently written up in an American
trade paper as Brianstoim. With my
typing, I should complain ... but Monty
python could suel (Good name for an
Indy Jones rival, though.

Brian StormI).

Madrid's annual sf and fantasy fest
has been re-scheduled for April 16-24 to
avoid any clash with those titans, the
American Rkn Market and the Cannes
Festival . . . That's still too early a date
for Canada's new space thriller, Slwttlo,
which is still collecting the ten-million
smackers it needs before shooting can
begin next summer . . . Storberst friend
and dream, Sybil Banning into a
US-West Germany combo called Jalie
Darling. (Isn't she, thoughi) I also hear
it’s between Sybil and French siren
Brigitte Lahaie for the main femme role
in the Rash Gordon sequel . . .

LOOKS FAMILIAR!

Change the cap and maybe the lady's
tight jeans — but what we have here,
friends, is an obvious Raiders rip.
Nothing to do with the sequel it's part
of the poster-art for "a modem ad-
venture of danger and suspense." Like
wow! It's a new movie called Mother
Lode, written and produced by a certain
Fraser Clarke Heston and directed and
starring his dad, Charlton Heston.
(Fraser played moses as a babe in the
bullrushes in The Tan C omm a ndwi n t s .

Not a Iona people know dat).

The couple in the cave are the film's
young hero and his girl. Kim Basinger is
the update of Karen Allen (Kim's best
remembered for her Cat and Dog tv
series). The fella is Nick Mancuso, out
and about again recently in the Night-
wing flop, double-billed with Susan
George's flop. Enter The Ninja. He's a
good actor though, one of the hits of the
2Sth London film festival with his
Taormina festival award-winning work
in Canada's Ticket to Heaven, about

the Moonie religion. Poor guy, he was
so damned good in that he won a
Mitsiofl hnpossiblo rip-off series called
Unit 4 ... and now the Heston gold-
mining sags (complete with cuddly rats
in the lower right-hand comer). Nick
deserves something better. Unit 4 will
not be it You know it's a loser because
his co-star is Ben Murphy the Paul
Newman lookalike always trying for a hit
show— Alias Smith and Jonas, Gamiai
Man, Griff, The Chisholms. And he's
never made it yet.

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ART OF TNE MOVIE HEAVY METAL
Superb Tvy'xO' aollback det a iling the making 01 toe epic
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o< fantasy Mms. Heavy Metal and animalion £8.00

CLUCK! THE TRUE STORY OF CHtCKENS M THE CINEMA
by Jon-Slephen Fink

A truly weird book detailing the hrstory ol the chicken (cooked 8
uncooked) in movies Profusely ISustralad with stills ol every-
one's lavounie bird TTiia book jual mighi change your tte
Softback C3.9S

MEL BROOKS HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART I
A genune aprC Brooks' book captures in hundreds of piclures
(colour and black & whits) man's silly side through history

Includes bound-in (lexidisc of toe Inquisilion Song Not to be

missed Softback Ct.M

STEPHEN KMO-S DANSE MACABRE
Rie top horror wrtterdtocu s ees his interests and influence s from
al fantasy fields, including books, comics and movies A
tooroughly entert a ining vokanewtitlen In King's superb sl^ A
landm a r k book eiat belongs in every cottection Mustraled
Hardback CS.98

Large forniat Softback ES.IM

FILM TRICKS

Large format aoflback deac r toe a al aspects of flkn SFX from
make-up dvough mechanical to optical FX )AM designed and
Wustraled. Film Tricks Is probably toe moat comprehensive
book of Is type available £780

HEROES OF THE SPACEWAYS by Bil Hwry
A comple t e treasury of Space Heroes in Mms. comics and TV
from 1930 on Packed with pics, contains 370 entries detaikog
every hero, vilain. monster, robot etc Softback £3.98

ITS ALIVE

The Classic Cinema Saga of Frankanalein by Gregory WMiam
Monk

Large lomial hardback book describes toe history of toe
Universal Frankenstein Mms horn toe firal In 1931 toAbbollwid
CoeMto Meet Frankenstein In 1948 )MelLI«u s lr al ed with sMs.

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pages Hardback only n.gs

THE JAMES BOND FILMS by Steven Rubin
Rubkie's long awaited history of the James Bond Mms is Dnaty
available This large loimal volume describes toe mNdng of
each of the Bond features and Is Mustraled wito dozens of rwe
behind the scenes sMs

Hardback tg.gg

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OUTLANO MOVIE NOVEL adeed by Rrchard Anoblle
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accompanied by toe scr eenplay of toe Mm Since tois book was
created prior to the final cut of toe Mm. toere may wee be
deferences between tors Movie Novel and toe Mm in release
Soficover £8.95

MOVIES ON TV by Steven Scheur

Latest edition of tors rndispanaible guide 818 pages, over
lO.CXX) movies Irsled and rated No 'w sat should be withoul
one Paperback £1.95

SPLATTER MOVIES by John McCarty
Yuk!' Blood and gora abound In tors aulansrvsly Mu s l ra la d
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Chrislmas wito this terrific gore-ogiaphy £840

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

Muslralad Screenplay (U K. EdWon) £380

Official Poster Magazine 75p

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

Cole ct or's EdWon StM Set.

8 black & while 8x 1 0's in an Mustraled synopsis folder wito cast
and crew Istings SET£878

PHOTOBUSTERS

Superb set of 10 13*xl8' colour stMs from John Carpenter's
new SF torWer, bordered wito toe production art kom toe Mm.
Umled supplies of tola c o lec t or’s lam SETE7.S0

P oster Meg 88p

Soundtrack CS.40

NO STRMK2S ATTACHED

10* Longplay record featuring Thundsrblrde. Captain Sc«1el.
Stingray and Joe 90 Themes £2.80

STILLS

SUPERMAN I

Beautiful set of 8 colour 8x10 sMs from pari 2 of Supamwi's
advenlurn SET £828

CAROLINE MUNRO ST8L SET
8 gorgeous 8 xIO's In lul colour of fantasy’s leadtog lady SET
£800

MAGAZINES

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Detailed Ming of contents In our new catalogue.

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£3.90

3/3. 4/3. 6i2. 6/3. 8/1. 9/2

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4/4. 5/1. 5/2. 5/3, 5/4

CMO

7/3-4. 9/3-4

£7 JO

s/4-7/1 (Star Wws Double)

£1380

11/4 (Ray Hatryhauean)

£2.40

11/5 (The Making olGlioel Story,

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£2.40

FANOORM

1 $ (Hallo««on 11. SwaiTip Thing, Harryhaustn)

£1.10

STARLOG No. 52

Blade Runner. Shalnar. Heartbeepti. H R Gigsr.

Thing

movie plue i* leguler lealutee

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STARLOG No. 53

Latest American imoort

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STARBURST

1.2. 3.15

tach

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Mch

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14. Prisoner of the Cannibal
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yLUHM CHSTLC

We present the first of a four chapter examination of the career of horror showman extraordinaire, William Castle.

Above: William Castle on the set of Day of the Loctiat. Inset: A scene from Homicidal.

is the fright break. You
^sar that sound? The sound
i of a haartbaat. fs it beating
faster than your heart? Or slower?
This heart is going to beat for
another sixty five seconds to allow
anyone to leave this theatre who is
too frightened to see the end of the
picture, and get your FULL
ADMISSION REFUNDED. Ten
seconds more and we go into the
house. H's now or never.

Five

Four

You're a brave audience.

Two

One.”

Thus the highly memorable denouement of
Homicidal begins; A lush blonde vamp with
the now standard issue kitchen knife who also
turns out to be a baritone male. Also? At the
film's conclusion you aren't too sure whether
our maniac is the man dressed up as the
blonde or the blonde dressed up as the man.

seeing as how they both take a curtain call
together, courtesy of split screen.
Affectionately (and by most critics
unaffectionately) known as King of the
Gimmicks Showman, Director, Producer,
Writer, Actor William Castle reigned pretty
well supreme in the horror field from the late
50s for just over a decade.

Driven by one main brief he eventually
made his films to suit the promotional
gimmick that invariably led to their box office
success. The brief was quite simple, to "scare
the pants off America".

One of the earliest practitioners of 3D in
feature films he used the process in FoitTi, a
western, after getting a thumbs down on a
perhaps more suitable project Earth to the
Moon a couple of years before. Castle had
been extolling the virtues of 3D for sometime,
having seen an MGM short in his childhood
days that attempted to offer, crudely, the
same basic effect. But it wasn't until the
proven commerical success of the process in
a film called Bwana Devil that Castle was
given the go-ahead for his 3D excursion.

From 3D he graduated to the marvels of
Percepto, Emergo, lllusion-o. Ghost Viewers,
Fright Breaks and the superlative Punishment
Poll, until finally reaching the reasonably

des|}erate measure of handing out blood
spattered cardboard axes to the audience for
Strait-Jacket in 1964.

Between 1943 and 1956 Castle made a
batch of B movies, mainly under Harry Cohn's
rule at Columbia although occasionally being
loaned out to other studios. Wanting to
transcend the obvious restrictions and
material of the Bs, Castle's requests for A
movie status were consistently turned down.
Adroit within the confines of these support
films he remained where he was.

Watching the French film Oiabolique in
1958 gave Castle the impetus to go for broke
on his own, similar, much derived, murder
mayhem production. Macabre.

Purchasing the rights to a novel called "The
Marble Forest"— discovered to have been
written by not one but thirteen authors —
Castle organised a screenplay, hocked his
house and shot the film in nine days. When
viewing the rough cut he realised that
something was missing, the film didn't have
an edge. So he put a call through to Lloyds of
London.

"I'd like an insurance policy."

"For yourself, sir?"

"No. I want to insure everybody in the
world ... in case they drop dead."

Abovs laft: Off ttt during th» filming of Th*
Tinglar. Cattit mctx for tht eamtra.
Although it is unlikaly that you can tea it in
this picture Catda it wearing nail varnish,
and hit watch reads just after six, which
means this shot was probably taken in hit
own time. What does this tall us? Abov«
right; A particularly effective scene In
Th« Tinker. The actress was attired in a
gray bath robe and the set was dressed in
shades of grey. But the bath was filled with
red stage blood. Mien the camera craned up,
so that the audience could tee the contents
of the bath, the effect was devastating!
Bedford was the first choice for the role of
Guy Woodhouse in RoMinary't Baby but he
and Paramount vMre in dispute at that time
and ha was handed e subpoena during a lunch
meeting with director Polanski. That effec-
tively scotched hit chances. John Castevetet
was cast for the part three days before
shooting commenced.

At first, naturally, everyone else concerned
with the distribution of Macabre thought the
idea of insuring an entire theatre-going
audience against their demise stank, but the
extraordinary success of the gimmick (The
poster blurb ran; “See it with someone who
can carry you home") proved its worth, and a
90,000 dollar investment made a staggering
return of five million dollars.

Enter William Castle as Independant.

The Distributors Allied Artists, naturally,
wanted another such picture immediately
and the exhibitors wanted another Castle
gimmick. The hastily contrived The House on
Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price before his
AlP heyday, was the result. The plot involved
a group of people invited by a millionaire.
Price, to stay the entire night in the abode of
the title. If they made it until morning they'd
each receive a fat cheque for their troubles.

Subconsciously perhaps the storyline
echoed the publicity stunt for the previous
film, and once more the influence of
Diabolique could be seen at the film’s
climax — a supposed half rotted, near skeletal
body rising from a vat of acid, the final touch
in Vincent Price's calculated catalogue of
misery geared to despatching his wife.

herself nurturing a murderous conclusion to
their soured marriage.

It was at this point in the film that Emergo,
Haunted Hill's gimmick, was brought into
play. A 12ft skeleton EMERGed (I'm afraid it's
that cheap) from a black box beneath the
theatre’s screen, and, worked by the
projectionist, was winched through the
auditorium, over the audience's heads.
Cheap and crude as maybe, not to mention
the "effects" reliance on each individual
projectionist's sense of timing, the low
budget idea did its job and the financial
rewards reaped by all concerned
consolidated faith in Castle's maxim.

This sense of fun — the scaring of an
audience in this somewhat detached,
theatrical way diminished the truly affecting
and disturbing horror overtones — was the
driving force behind each picture. For Castle
to see and feel the audience react at an instant
was what it was all about.

Some 30 years prior Castle, lucky enough
to catch Lugosi’s stage portrayal of Dracula
(and later to work in the theatre with him at
Lugosi's request) would pay his price of
entrance solely to observe the audience and
their shocked reactions as the workings of the

plot unfolded.

An understanding of his audience was
Castle’s great strength. He provided them
with subjects that he himself would have paid
to see. Later his career took a commercial
dive when he decided to try and opt out of the
exploitation field and try the more acceptable
modus operandum of employing
established, well-known artistes. He had also-
hoped to be able to sell the films on the basis
of their worth alone, without them being
coupled with a detracting gimmick. But K
wasn't to be.

One morning in 1967 the unrevised proofs
of a recently written novel found their way
onto Castle's desk. Ira Levin's Rosemary's
Baby. For Castle things began to pick up a
little.

However, between the oprening of Macabre
and Castle's introduction to an arrogant,
narcissistic Roman Polanski in London there
is a wealth of superlative cinema and
gimmickry and showmanship, orchestrated
by the man who gave you such gems as this,
used for the poster blurb on 13 Ghosts.

"Warning I If you should only count 1 2
Ghosts on the screen don't feel cheated— one
of them likes to mingle with the audiencel"^

siliisc ciiiis a

emu

1 . What is a horror film without
victims? Name the characters and the
actors who played them.

a) the first victim of the Alien (1).

b) the first victim of The Howling's
Eddie Quist (1).

c) the first victim of Norman
Bates (1).

2. Name the cat in Alien (1).

3. From which films do the following
quotes come?

a) "Inspector Clay is dead. Murdered.
And somebody is responsible" (1).

b) "It went for a little walkl" (1).

c) "For a man who has not lived even
one lifetime, you are a wise man (1).

4. Which films featured . . .

a) The Fear Flasher and The Horror
Horn (1).

_ b) Th e Frig ht Break (1).

c) Emerg-o (1).

5. What sort of b easties starred in the
following movies . . .

a) The Monster That Challenged

1 ^;

8 .

( 1 ).

b) Squirm (1).

c) The Giant Claw (1).

More quotes. This time name the
actors speaking (1 point for each)
and the films in which the lirres are
spoken (another point for each).

a) "What we need is young blood . . .
aird brains!"

b) "Hoi, have you got the wrong
vampire!"

c) To new worlds of gods and
monsters!"

Name the writer whose fantasy
books were filmed by the following
directors (1 point) and give
the film titles in each case (another
point for each).

a) Bryan Forbes.

b) Rom^n Polanski.

c) Franklin J. Schaf fner.

Name the actress-turned-authoress
best known for her Hammer movies
(1). And what is the title of her first
novel (1).

In which film did Jessica Harper
escape selling her soul to the Devil

(D? Who directed the movie (1)?

And who play ed the Devil ( 1 )?

rifiic

10. A person, film or character links the
following groups. Give the links (1
point for each).

a) Things to Come (1936), Thief of
Bagdad (1940), Invaders from Mars
(1954).

b) Douglas Trumbull, Joe Alves, Greg
Jein.

c) Plan 9 from Outer Space, Bride of
the Monster, Glen or Glerrda.

d1 1 Walked with a Zombie, The Cat
People, The Body Snatcher.

e) I Walked with a Zombie, The Cat
People, Night of the Demon.

f) Walter Hill, Dan O’Bannon, Ridley
Scott

g) Jack O'Halloran, Sarah Douglas,
Terence Stamp.

h) Robert Fuest, Ernest Borgnine,
John Travolta.

11. Name the only actor ever to win an
Oscar for a horror role (1).

12. In which film does Lionel Barrymore

disguise himself as an old lady and
sell dolls which kill (1)?

13. ^ Which Italian rock band provided the
' soundtrack music for Dario

Argento's Suspiria |1)? Name three
other films they provided music for
(1 point for each).

14. And still on the subject of movie
music, name two rock musicians who
wrote their first film scores for
recent fantasy films (1 point for

each).

15. Which illustration was the first to
come to life in The Illustrated
Man (1)?

16. How many chapters made up . . .

a) Flash Gordon (1).

b) Flash Gordon's Trip to Man (1).

c) Flash Gordon Conquers the

Universe (1).

17. Which popular leading actor featured
with Boris Karloff in two Roger
Corman productions (1). Name the
films (1 point for each).

18. Who belongs to the following
pseudonyms (1 point for each).

a) John Elder.

b) Sydney Aaron.

c) Lewis Coates.

<9. a) In which film did a girl discover her
dead mother had sold her soul to
the Devil on her 21st birthday? (1)

b) Which film featured the demonic
possession of the 17th Century nuns
of Loudoun? (1)

20. Who composed the classical music
featured in Alien? (1). Name the
piece (1).

21. In which Edgar Allan Poe film was
TererKe Stamp decapitated? (1).

DttCOlZ

Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel from
the 1941 Republic serial of the same
name. But can you give the title of
the Universal Mummy film in which
he played the Mummy? (1)

Elsa Lanchester as the Bride of the
Creature in Bride of Frankenstein.
But what other role did she play in
that film? (1)

No prizes for identifying Peter
Boyle. But who is the swooning
actress? (1)

Name the film, the character and the
actor (1 point for each).

Name the actor and the recent Tobe
Hooper film he appeared in (1 point
for each).

Name the three characters and the
actors who played them (1 point for
each).

Name this character (1).

Yes, it's Batman and Robin, ail right,
but who are the actors (1 point for
each)?

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Jt s I said in Starfourst 34, 1981 would
shape up to be the Year of the Wolf.
Nearly all the films I mentioned back in
that article have surfaced, wKh the exception
of Full Moon High.

But don't let me mislead you, WoHen is not
a werewolf movie. Exactly what it is I'm not
sure, but don't let my uncertainty put you off
what is, for the most part, an enjoyable film.

WoHen tells the story of a series of bizarre
killings in the derelict South Bronx district of
New York. Throats are ripped out, bodies
dismembered and various organs missing.

The police are at a loss to know who or what is
at the root of the trouble. So they call in semi-
retired hot-shot cop Dewey Wilson, played by
Albert Finney sporting a none-too-reliable
New York accent. To assist the disillusioned
Dewey there's Rebecca Neff, an equally hot
shot psychologist essayed by Diane Verona.
Ms Verona is certainly attractive, if at times
reminding one of Genevieve Bujold's
younger sister — if indeed she has one.

The film opens with a well-orchestrated
triple murder, which goes some way to
proving the theory of the twitch of the death
nerve. It's in the opening that we are
introduced to the Wolfen themselves, if only
subjectedly. Through a process of computer
enhanced optical effects we see and hear

Review by Phi! Edwards

(courtesy of the Dolby system) what the
Wolfen see and hear. Pretty effective this, but
after an hour we realise that director Michael
Wadleigh is going to rely on these devices for
most of the shock value of the film.

It seems that WoHen had considerable
problems. Exactly whose fault those
problems belong to is anybody's guess this
long after the event. And really who's
interested anyway. What we're concerned
with here is the finished film. WoHen is quite
stunning to look at thanks to Gerry Fisher's
camerawork and Garrett Brown's prowling
Steadicam, which substitutes for the eyes of
the Wolfen.

What ultimately lets WoHen down and
stops it being anywhere near a genre classic

Thit tpread: A fries of scenes from the Werner releese Wolf an, which stars Albert Finney as the
New York policeman Dewey Wilson who finds him f If caught up In a pitched battle between
Mankind and a peck of super-intelligent wolves.

is the script, credited to Wadleigh and David
Eyre. No doubt all you aging hippies out there
will recall that Wadleigh directed Woodstock
and there’s a little bit too much of the Spirit of
'67 lurking in the script for Wotfen. There's
quite a lot of Concern for Social Issues,
ranging from the Treatment of the American
Indian in Modem American Society, to
Insinuations About Big Business, through
such relatively minor issues as the Decayed
State of the South Bronx and the
Misunderstanding of the Wolf. But don't get
me wrong. These really ere important
problems and ones that have been dealt with
in cinema in the past and no doubt will be in
the future.

What I question is this. Do they belong in
what is basically a glossy horror movie? At
least the film's distributors are selling it as
that. Perhaps Mike Wadleigh intended
something quite different. Apparently much
of WoHen's shock/gore footage was added
after completion of Wadleigh's version. If it
was, then full marks to the editors, for it is
integrated flawlessly. The make-up effects of
Rick Baker protege Carl Fullerton are indeed
startling, though I'm not too sure how a wolf,
even a super-intelligent one, can so neatly lop
a man's head off.

I honestly hate to recommend that any
movie made in Dolby should be seen that
way. If a film is good it should stand on its
own merits of writing, direction, editing and
performances and be equally impressive as a
work in any format, even on a twelve inch
black and white television. However, I have a
feeling that WoKen may suffer when seen
without the benefits of Dolby. Nearly all the
aural shock effects are going to be dissipated
when put thorough some of the poor excuses
which pass for sound systems in cinemas in
this country. It just might be worth the trek to
see it in Dolby. A

Review by Alan Jones

B ored by the movies around at the
moment that are a poor excuse for
entertainment? Well, "You need a bit of
Shock Treatment, ft gets you Jumping like a
real live-wire", to quote from the title song of
the new Richard O'Brien musical fantasy film
and the latest extension of his preoccupation
with that perfect American couple
Brad and Janet, last seen in his enormously
popular late night cult movie The Rocky
Horror Picture Show.

Make no mistake about Shock Treatment it
is as entertaining and as funny as The Rocky
Horror Picture Show, perhaps even more so
as it is a totally new entertainment, the first
film being slightly dulled by over familiarity
with the show. More importantly it is one of
the best-directed British films for ages — even
if only an nth of the praise heaped on
something like Chariots of Fire should be
directed towards Shock Treatment, it would
be far more deserved. In the wasteland of the
British Film Industry the fact that such an
adventurous film should be backed at all is a
surprise.

Once again the town of Denton is the
starting point for the film except that in this
case, the town is a television studio, (one of
the best ideas to occur to the makers when
they couldn't film on location in the US due to
the actor's strike). Here the mythical
suburban community has become so
dominated by television that life itself has
become one giant television show. It's a
lifestyle complete with commercial breaks,
day-time marriage counselling, medical
series and soap operas. Brad and Janet
Majors (Cliff de Young and Jessica Harper)
suddenly find themselves participating in the

2C'

. ' • 'dU'l I 1 .in. J

Marriage Maze show hosted by the blind Bert
Schnick (Barry Humphries). Bert cajoles
Janet into proclaiming Brad an unsuitable
husband and he is sent to the medical series
for treatment supervised by Nation and
Cosmo McKinley (Patricia Quinn and Richard
O'Brien) sexily assisted by Nurse Ansalong
(Nell Campbell). This is all part of a master
plan by Denton tv's sponsor, Farley Flavors,
to build Janet into the ultimate media
superstar and own her for himself. He's doing
this all for one main reason — he has a dark
secret skeleton in his closet and one that ties
him surprisingly to Brad's fate. Only Betty
Hapschatt (Ruby Wax) and Judge Oliver
Wright (Charles Gray) find out the truth in
time — but will they be too late to save Brad
from a fate worse than death-obscurity?

Enough about the story as the intricacies of
the plot do take some comprehending, so
have fun working them out for yourself. The
songs are as one would expect, all first rate.
Clever, witty and as catchy as their
predecessors were, the standouts, once
again written by O'Brien and Richard Hartley,
are "Denton U.S.A.", "In My Own Way",
"Little Black Dress", "Me of Me", "Shock
Treatment", "Looking for Trade" and the
rousing closing anthem, "Anyhow,

Anyhow", "In My Own Way", "Me of Me"
and "Looking for Trade" are superb
showcases for Jessica Harper's talent. She
really was the best part of Phantom of the
Paradise and here her distinctive voice and
superb acting make you forget Susan
Sarandon's Janet instantly. "Me of Me" in
particular shows how Janet adapts to her
prefabricated superstar persona in the deftest
way possible and as a result she makes Shock
Treatment her film.

Director Jim Sharman takes what could
have easily degenerated into a mish-mash of
outrageous pastiche and makes a brilliantly
fluid film, full of adventurous camerawork
and audacious comprosition. The opening
shot is a long continuous 360° pan of all the
action occurring in the tv studio. It grabs the
attention immediately and is a tip-off, in it's
homage to Orson Welles Touch of Evil of the
pleasures to come. The song "Lullaby" is also
directed in this style as the camera peeps into
different bedrooms at different times to
observe the ever-changing action. There is
always something happening in Sharman's
frame and he is helped enormously by the
stylised High-Tech look of Brian Thomson's
design and Mike Molloy's almost edible
photography.

Apart from Jessica Harper, praise too for
Barry Humphries as the blind game show
host, Bert Schnick. Leaving his Dame Edna
Everage role aside for once, he plays Schnick
as an eccentric Nazi cariacture equipped with
an evil sense of humour and facial
expressions not seen since the silent German
cinema. Seen through the distorted reality of
O'Brien's (tele-) vision, this is a marvellous
performance.”

The only fear I have about Shock T reatment
is that it may not transcend the cult status
determined by The Rocky Horror Picture
Show. It deserves to be seen by the widest
possible audience, because although its
treated in an irreverrent and camp way, the
message is basically serious. Television does
offer what a lot of people mistake as reality.
As director Jim Sharman says "(With Shock
Treatment) we're giving a new perspective
on what is served up every day by tfie media
as reality".

Anyway get the record for Christmas and
learn the words so you can sing along with
the film and as a final tribute to Richard
O'Brien and Jim Sharman, to paraphrase
both "Farley's Song" and "Lullaby" — "I was
looking at an ace — Thanks a heap". A

Preceeding spread, left hand page. Main picture: The sultry
Elisabeth Brooks livened up the already lively Joe Dante picture
The Howling. Inset top: Ursula Andress appeared brief ly in the
Ray Harryhausen spectacular Clash of the Titans, though only
had one line! Inset centre: The Bond girl in For Your Eyes Only,
Caroline Bouquet. Inset below: Cherie Lunghi was John
Boorman's Guenevere in Excalibur. Cherie is. according to editor
Alan McKenzie, even more beautiful in real life than she' is in the
movie. Right hand page. Main picture: Linda Kerridge is Marilyn
in the as-yet unreleased Fade To Black. Inset top: Jennie Agutter
co-starred in the John Landis shocker An American Werewolf in
London. Inset below: Karen Alien played the obligatory
Lawrence Kasdan-style fiesty female in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
This spread, opposite page. Top row, left to right: Barbara Bach
in Caveman, Nancy Alien in distress in Dressed to Kill. The
lovely Glynnis Barber in Blake's 7. Centre row, left to right:
Adrienne Barbeau in Escape from New York, Jennifer O'Neill in
Scanners. Bottom row left to right: Shelley Long gave a better
impression as a Fantasy Female than Barbara Bach in Caveman.
Long-time Fantasy Female Barbara Carrera returned to the fold
with the Disney spy movie Condorman, Joanna Lumley
continued in her role as Sapphire in the tv series Sapphire and
Steel. This page. Left: The late Dorothy R. Stratten as she
appeared in the as-yet unreleased Galaxina. Below left: Jane
Seymour appeared opposite Superman's Christopher Reeve in
Somewhere in Time. Below right: What fantasy females gallery
would be complete without a picture of the very lovely Caroline

Munro?

M ichael Armstrong directed David
Bowie in his screen debut.

Michael Armstrong had a choice
between 608 teen-idols Fabian and Frankie
Avalon as the star of his first horror film.
Michael Armstrong appeared in a sex film
with a topless Diane Keen. Michael
Armstrong directed one of the most
controversial horror films of the 70s. Who is
Michael Armstrong?

When the credit squeeze prevented his
play. The Rise end Fell of Armageddon from
transferring to the West End, actor/writer
Michael Armstrong decided to become a
movie director. It was a field he could say he
knew something about as he had made a
home horror film called Nightmare when he
was 1 2 years old. His first step on the ladder of
success was to cast Ian Ogiivy and Simon Dee
in a film about Satanism called The Initiate,
"But it was strong stuff for those days and the
censor objected to the script. I was going to
shoot it at weekends on l^m." Undaunted,
Armstrong then tried to arouse interest in
another script he had written called A Floral
Tale, which was a fantasy satire about Greek
Gods and Godesses. It was this script that
found him in the offices of Border Films and
although they liked it they thought it was a bit
ambitious for someone who had never
directed before. They then asked him if he
would like to do a short film for them first.
"And the result was The Image. It was 14
minutes long. Black and White, shot in 2Vi
days, and starred David Bowie who I had
berome friendly with because I had wanted
him to do the music for A Floral Tale. " The
film was originally meant to be a ghost story
with a twist at the end, "However, we ended
up with 7 Vi minutes of screen time which
meant that when I cut it, I had to make it arty
with flashbacks and forwards to extend it. It
must be the only film in history to grow twice,
as long in the cutting room." The film
attracted a modicom of attention when
Border released it with Sex in the Grass
although, as Armstrong comments, "What
that particular audience made of it is
anyone's guessi"

Enthusiasm at a high level, Armstrong dug
up a script he had written when he was 15
years old called The Dark. After one brush
with a dubious financeer who Armstrong is
convinced had Underworld connections,
John Trevelyan, the censor at the time put
him in touch with Tony Tenser of Tigon films.
"He read the script on Thursday, phoned me
on the Saturday and I signed the contract on
the Monday. I got paid £300 which seemed
like a fortune, so I got a nice flat and waited".
And waited, until penniless once again and
sleeping on Victoria station he decided to
phone his agent for help, "And found out that

Tenser had done a co-production deal with
American International Pictures and that
shooting was to start immediately."

His experiences on the film that was to be
released in 1969 as The Haunted House of
Horror are ones that he still feels reticent to
talk about. "It involved a lot of political
backstabbing which I was totally unaware of
until I became the fall guy. The major problem

was with Louis "Deke" Heyward from the
American side who had jeopardised his
position in A.I.P. and saw my film as an effort
to reassert himself The story behind The
Haunted House of Horror is everything that
should not happen to a young director."
Made on a budget of £80,000 and shot
principally on location at the 100-year-old
Birkdale Palace Hotel at Southport which had

been turned into a film studio by art director
Hayden Pearce. The Haunted House of Horror
concerned a group of bored youngsters who
decide to continue a party in an old dark,
supposedly haunted, house and the
reverberations when one of their number is
viciously-dPd for the time, gorily-hacked to
death. "Frankie Avalon had to be the star as
he had been under contract to AlP and owed

them some days work. It was for this reason
alsOvthat I nearly had to have Boris Karloff in a
cameo role. David Bowie was going to be the
killer but the part eventually went to Julian
Barnes, (who subsequently was awarded
"Best Newcomer" in Films and Filming's
yearly awards), and I had originally
approached singer Scott Walker for the part
played by another singing star, Mark

Wynter". After four weeks of shooting,
Armstrong watched as another director,
Gerry Levy (a Tigon in-house
producer/director) who had made the
appalling The Body Stealers, reshot and
added scenes that distorted his original
concept of the film. "My film was a cynical
attack on the swinging '60s and they changed
that perspective. ^

Left: A ttunning production drawing for th» unraalisod
proiact The Enchanted Orchestra, which Michaal Arm-
ttrong was workirtg on under hit Fantasia Productions
banner. Above: Advertising/promotionai art from
another project thet failed to get off the ground.

The Curse of Tittikhamon. The idea was to do a
Mummy film at a song-and-dance musical.

They also changed the explorations into
the psychological motiv'ations of the killer,
which were that he was gay and had a sort of
closet-queen murderous mentality". The
final indignation came when Armstrong was
cutting a picture for Border Films called The
Hunt. The cuttirtg rooms overlooked Tigon's
offices, "And I watched as a poster was put in
the window for The Dark on the Tuesday and
replaced on Thursday with one for The
Haunted House of Horror. I stormed round to
Tony Tensor and was told that I had to think
commercial". The Haunted House of Horror
was released in the UK with a lack-lustre
thriller called Clegg. In America it fared better
as simply Horror House on its first release
with Tigon's Curse of the Crimson Altar and
on its re-release with the Helmut Berger
Dorian Gray. Needless to say Armstrong
didn't make a penny out of it but it paved the
way for his next film, the controversial, and
still banned in this country, Mark of the Devil.

The reviews that greeted Mark of the Devil
on its release in 1 972 were nearly all of this
nature — "Unbelievably gory and totally
sadistic voyage into witch-hunting with little
or no plot, intelligence or sense of decency."

The vehemence with which the critics
greeted the film was probably due to the very
historical nature of the plot. It was based on
fact, was shot in the actual location it all took
place in and in most scenes used the actual
torture instrurnents themselves. This was
what the critics couldn't handle — vampires
and werewolves are in the realms of fantasy
and therefore escape the violent criticism that
Armstrong's film and his friend, Michael
Reeves' WHchfinder General before him had
levelled at them. The film is as grim and
intense now as it was then, (something we
British can now say, thanks to Ks release on
video by Intervision), and Armstrong defends
this by saying that to him the worst sort of
violence is the sort you don't look away from.

Exploitation was certainly the hook on
which to hang the script when Armstrong
was first approached about the film. "Adrian
Hoven, the film's producer had written this
script called The Witch-Hunter Dr Dracula,
Gloria films in Germany said they would put
up the money and distribute it. Herbert Lorn
tentatively said he would be in it but Gloria
wouldn't accept Hoven as the director. As The
Haunted House of Horror had done well in
Germany they settled on me and I agreed to
do it as I was told I could change the script if I
didn't like it. When I did read it I was
horrified — it was very nearly hard core porn
with Dracula masquerading as a Witchfinder,
driven in a coach by an Egyptian Mummy,
with lots of mutilation and a sort of Hitler
speech at the end."

Armstrong rewrote the entire script under
the pseudonym Sergio (lassner and found
that although Herbert Lorn approved, Hoven
went berserk, and from the moment he
arrived in Germany, he and Hoven had daily
screaming matches, until Hoven cast himself
in it in a minor role (although he had been a
matinee idol in the war years, Gloria wouldn't
accept him as the star either) and went off to
shoot those scenes himself. Armstrong had
taken Hoven's lurid script and fashioned a
morality tale about Count Cumberland
(Herbert Lorn) arriving in a tiny Austrian
village to take over as official witch
executioner from Albino (Reggie Nalder —
more recently seen as the vampire in Salem's
Lot). Against this backdrop of mutual hate
and eventual murder unfolds three true
stories — Gaby Fuchs as a girl accused of
blasphemy when she says she was raped by a
bishop and has her tongue torn out to silence
her, a young Baron (Michael Maien) whose
inheritance is coveted by the Church and are
therefore trying to prove he is a warlock, and

a married couple (Hoven and Ingeborg
Schoener) who are arrested while giving a
puppet show with no explanation as to how
the puppets work. The catalogue of torture is
many and varied — the rack, the Spanish boot,
water torture, burning at the stake,
thumbscrews and more, and there is no let
up, which is exactly what Armstrong wanted.
"What shocked me, and why I made the film

so brutal was that the methods of torture
were so crudel One thinks they were
sophisticated, but they weren't at all. I'm
amazed how some people withstood it. It was
all so matter of fact and I wanted the film to
have that sort of barbarous feel to it.

Another aspect that fascinated me was that
it was one thing having the local bully doing
things but it is another when someone does

This spread: A series
of production
drawings from the
un realised projec t.
The ErKhented
Orchestra.

them in the name of the church and thinks
he's right. This theme gets a bit lost in the
picture (Hoven edited it and added the terrible
Eurovision score) but it was one of my
motivations for doing it. The violence was a
way of life too. It was common day,

' thousands of these deaths occurred as
witchfinding had been far heavier in Europe
than in Britain". One of the reasons why the

British censor still refuses to pass the film is
the juxtaposition of one of the more prurient
tortures with a sex scene which according to
Armstrong was an imposition by Hoven who
still wanted an all-out exploitation film. Even
one of the actors, Udo Kier who plays
Cumberland's pupil, said that all his scenes
were reaction shots and he didn't know what
he was reacting to. "Nonsense", says

Armstrong, "Udo and Herbert were in the
studio when I filmed these scenes". Mark of
the Devil cost £1 20,000 and was shot in 6
weeks. On the third day of shooting the
production manager threw all the production
schedules in the air and announced he was
going on holiday. From then on the shoot was
chaos. Some actors would arrive at one
location, some at another. Often two or three

actors would disappear to Munich to do a
commercial that r>o-one‘ knew about and to
cap it all Adrian Hoven hadn't had the scripts
printed up and the crew found they were
working from scraps of paper. Ultimately it
didn't matter — Mark of the Devil was the
number 1 film in Germany that year and it
made a fortune for Hallmark in America, who
released it with the gimmick of free vomit
bags where it has gone on to be a cult film.

The United Kingdom is the only place the
film hasn't been shown, in every other market
it has been considerably successful, so
successful in fact that a sequel was released
in 1974, Mark of the Devil Part II, which was
directed by Adrian Hoven, even though initial
overtures had been made to Armstrong. The
film sank without a trace and Hoven then
directed The Terrible Quick Sword of
Seigfried starring none other than Sybil
Danning.

Shattered and disillusioned by these two
emotionally draining experiences Armstrong
decided to earn his living as just a writer. "I
decided to say yes to everything. I
compromised. Anything I cared about would
go on the shelf and wait. Producer Harry Allan
Towers wanted me to direct a film call^
Flesh and Blood with Christopher Lee based
on Burke and Hare, the bodysnatchers and
what I shou Id have done in retrospect is go to
America and cashed in on the huge success of
Mark of the Devil". This resolution coincided
with an old director friend of his, Martin
Campbell, scraping some money together for
a* sex film for Tigon. "They asked me to write
it and the result was The ^x Thief. I added
comedy, got good actors and decided to act in
it myself with Diane Keen."

The Sex Thief did reasonably well at the
box-ofTice mainly because it was the first sex
film to be released in mainstream cinemas
rather than just the specialist showcases. The
mix of comedy and semi-nudity was
somehow more acceptable to general
audiences. Eskimo Nell followed and in
writing it and starring in it as himself,
Armstrong found a platform to vent his
spleen at Wardour Street as the story
concerned an idealistic young director who is
swindled and artistically stifled by a group of
unscrupulous entrepreneurs. Armstrong
says that most of the situations were based
on fact and that 70% of the dialogue
consisted of actual quotes.

Somewhat vindicated by Eskimo Nell,
Armstrong went on to write for a number of
television shows including The
Professionals, Triangle, Shoestring, Return
of the Saint and more recently two children's
puppet series called Toad's Army and The
Ants of the Rouitd Mushroom, the latter
involving chromokeyed rod puppets.
However two major film projects were in the
works both of which were cancelled when the
monies failed to materialise at the last
moment. "One was The Curse of Tittikhamon
which would have beaten Airplane in the
lampoon stakes. I had written it years earlier
as The Sex Curse of Tittikhamon but I liked it
so much that I decided to desex it, raised 2/3
of the money and went looking for a
distributor. Suddenly, out of the blue, one of
our investors withdrew his money and it
folded." The demise of this musical comedy
based film was the subject of a Man Alive
television programme and there is little doubt
that it would have been a successful movie.
Armstrong has a taped re-enactment of the
script which he played to would-be investors
and it is often hysterically funny as it tells of
Tittikhamon's search for Princess Nefertiti
and the confusion caused when the British
Museum decide to merchandise Nefertiti
love-rings to the general public, the only
identification Tittikhamon has of his lost love.

The other halted production is one that
Armstrong is still upset about and one he
hopes he can return to in the near future. It is
The Enchanted Orchestra based on the album
of the same name and was to be a fusion of
animation and live action. "I had started
storyboarding it. The scripts had been sent to
Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn, the
Albert Hall had been booked for shooting, the
majority of design work had been completed,
we had Bray studios fully operational and the
Swiss consortium who had backed us didn't
tell us till the last minute that their money had
been held up due to the Iranian problems. I
watched people who had worked for nothing,
myself included, have their enthusiasm for
the project turn to bitterness. It took six
months to write and was such a labour of love
as every single line of dialogue was a famous
quote."

Most recently Armstrong wrote
Dreanohouse, a short that Stanley Long of
Alpha films had commissioned as a support
to The Extanninator. He has also written a
screenplay with British Horror director Pete
Walker called Deliver us From £v/7 which is a
ghost story. It also looks like a comedy

Left: A production drawing
from The Enchanted
Drchettra. Below: Tha
promotional artwork for
Orphanage. Opposite: A
aakaction of scenes from the
exessively gory horror
movie. The Mark of the
Devil.

T,jVv

version of Robin Hood and will go into
production next Spring.

The project that Michael Armstrong is most
excited alMut at the moment is the one he
started 18 months ago when producers Clive
Parsons and Davina Belling asked him to
write a Halloweeti-type movie. "I had seen all
the recent horror movies and realised that the
only difference in them is the environment. It
was always a microcosm of people, and a
killer, in a holiday camp, or a school, or on a
train — so I thought of what hadn't been used
as that sort of device, and I came up with an
orphanage." What Armstrong wrote was a
totally formula picture and as nothing
happened with the story outline he
submitted, he shelved it until now.

“Orphanage will be strong and
uncomprising stuff I promise you that. I've
changed it all — it is no longer Scum meets
Psycho. The killer is just a figure, he really
isn't that important and it will be told from the
children's point of view. I have every
intention of coming back — let's face it, I did
what they're all doing now-then. Now I'm
coming back and just wait till you see what
with I" ^ 9

^ina episode, usea also as the poster art.
iven by Harry Canyon. Right: Some of
Lochnar, a kind of evif green bowling
ish fantasy illustrator Angus McKie
iectacular scenes in the film.

with an onslaught ot dh^ing images that
leaves you mentally gasping at the audacity
of the animators- -end admiring their skill.
Heavy Metal is the Fantasia of the 1980s-
tiard, brutal, funny and very unsubtle, with
none of the lofty intellectual pretensions of
the 1940 Disney movie. It is very much a film
of its time.

Conceptually, of course, there's not much
to it . It creates its sense of wonder purely on a
visual level, mainly by juKtaposing small
objects against big ones. T tiis is a device that
Ray Harryhausen has often used in tiis films
as he once said in an interview: "The very t)ig
or the very small have always been a source
of fascination to mo. I like the comparisons of
sizes — of great heads looking down on little
things, and little things looking up at great
heads." Harryhausen has exploited this
technique to great effect on many
occasions- the sequence in Jason and the
Argonauts when the statue of Talos comes to
life and looks down on the tiny liumans is a
prime example - but there are limitations to
how far you can go with this using the model
animation process. With straight animation,
however, there are no limitations to tfie range
of sizes you can suggest. Ttro sky is literally
the limit ... ►

M indblowing is a word that used to
be bandied about a lot once upon a
time. It was applied to so many
things it soon became devalued and a cliche.
Well, I'm blowing the dust off it and dragging
it back rnto the limelight . . .

Heavy Metal Is mind-blowing.

There's no other way to describe it. It's a
^ovie that takes your mind and blows it out
^jra^ack of your skull, especially if you're
simf^n the front row. It overwhelms you.

^hus in Heavy Metal there are •nucnerable
shots of vast statue^r^ structures dwarfing
the hurrftn CtiarB^nrs, Wilmii^ling in t)^-
sequence.whera a'gl«r]t space ^ip that is so
big It blot;. out l^e wtrolciof \^ashington DC
vOith itiiKarlow is in turn'^faitu^ed to the s4^e
of a in comparison to^^giiiantic city in
si).rf. The advantage that anihjation offers is
tha you can cret^te the illiision^iat the
c.Afera is movln^n on an iinpcf sibly large
o^ct by puling^ increasihgami^nt of
dAil on th«|pfff?en, SQfd|0(pfii^hat is
irrl^^sibleTndd when ruoniir|0inon a three-
diiiKtsional/n^el. Heavy MMal ifkploits to
the ful^gy He potential i Kai^ imation has for
cret^niP^kyAtotat^l^l^s on an almost

' Jimitfesj

I Okay, so we're agreed that Heavy Metal is a
♦nind boggling, mind blowing animation
extravatjanz^ but what's it^x^t^ about^

, Well, I suppose y(^ describe it as a science
fantasy story, or rather series of stories, with
the emphasis on Sword & Sorcery (or as
Hai*v Harrison oncpsuggested as a more
accurate |#rm: "Sword & Butchery"), It can
also be described as violent and sexist with*
strong element of sadomasochisn^nd even
a whiff of fascism, but these dubious •
ingredients are defused tty the movie's •
predominant sense of fun. The fact that
Heavy Metal is es;^ntially a comedy is not
surprising considerig^ that the Executive
Producer, Leonard MAgel, ist:o-found(;Mf
National Lampoon magazine and a prod
of Animal House, and that the two main
writers, Dan Goldberg and Len Blum, also
co-scripted Meatballs and Stripes

HMvy M«Ul consists of six separate stories
linked and framed by sequences concerning a
mysterious green sphere, called the Lochnar,
which represents universal Evil or
something. If the film has a serious flaw this is
it. Sometimes the green ball fits into the
individual stories but at other times is has to
be forced into the narrative, with distorting
and unsatisfactory results. I suppose some
sort of link between the stories was necessary
but I wish it had been in a different way (still,
it's not as senseless as some of the framing
devices around many of the Amicus
anthology films).

It begins with an astronaut returning to
Earth — in aconvertible yeti — with a present
for his young daughter. The 'present' is the
deadly green sphere which promply zaps
Daddy and then menaces the daughter,
telling her of its past triumphs over
goodness . . .

The first story it tells is /farry CSnyon which
corKerns a tough-talking taxi driver in a
future New York that is even more anarchic
and dartgerous than today's. He is persuaded
by a beautiful girl to help prevent the Lochnar
falling into the hands of a criminal gang but
she turns out to be just as treacherous as
everybody else. It's a kind of private-eye
parody, p^ed with splendid visual jokes,
that I found very amusing. It also manages to
be much more inventive within the confines
of its short running time than the whole of

Carpenter's vaguely similar Escape from
New York . . .

Then comes Den, created and designed by
Richard Corten ('Gore' of u rtderground
comics fame). Thisls an hilarious serid-up of
a typical sword & sorcery story. Skinny
teenage boy inventor, Dan, is suddenly swept
through time and space, thanks partly to the
Lochnar, to a distant world where he finds he
has been transformed into the hulking,
mighty-thewed Den. And before he knows it
he is up to his jock-strap in naked women,
monsters and evil magicians — all the usual
sword & sorcery ingredients. But throughout
K all he remains, on the inside, the same
callow teenager and his 'gee whiz' style
voice-owners, provided by John Candy, are
the chief source of the humour.

Captain Stemn, the next episode, is
probably the nearest thing to a 'cartoon' in
the picture and also, in my opinion, the least
successful section. Captain Stemn, who
resembles a Mad Magazine version of
Superman, is on trial in a giant space station
for various disgusting crimes. His defence
rests on the evidence of a nerdish-looking
character who falls under the influence of the
Lochnar on the way to the witness box and
turns into a rampaging giant. The subsequent
chase through the station is quite amusing
but it all leads up to a very unsatisfactory
pay-off. One feels it could all have been a lot
funnier than it was . . .

Dan O'Bannon of Alien fame supplies the
rtory for the next ^isode, ritled B1 7 which is
a straighfhorrorstoiv inthe^ Comics style.
Corpes in a bullet-riddled B 17 are taken over
by the Lochnar and return to life, sort of. The
pilot parachutes to safety but ends up on an
island populated by more animated corpses
. . . The graphics are brilliant (Mike Ploog was
the designer) but as in the previous episode
there's a lack of internal logic for what
happens (are we to presume, for instance,
that the green sphere is also responsible for
the walking dead on the island?).

The fifth story, and my personal favourite.
So Beautiful and So Dangerous, also lacks a
point but it matters less in this case because it
is a surreal, free-wheeling romp where the
marriage between the visuals and the sound
track is at its most successful (music here
provided by Nazareth). This is the one
involving the giant spherical space ship
mentioned earlier — for some reason a
Pentagon secretary is sucked up into the ship
where she has a close encounter with two
alien acid-heads, who talk like 1960s hippies,
and an amorous robot who not only beds her
but later proposes marriage. The sequences
where the ship arrives at the unimaginably
vast city in space are the most mind-blowing
in the movie but unfortunately the episode
comes to an abrupt halt at this point, just
when it seems to be really starting.

The sixth and final story is also the longest.
Called Taarna it is a sword and butchery (I
mean sorcery) fantasy with no humourous
content at all. It's also the one with the
heaviest quota of sado-masochism which is
either a plus or minus depending on your
personal taste.

It begins with the arrival of the ubiquitous
Lochnar on some planet (possibly a future
Earth) where it turns a tribe of desert dwellers
into a horde of blood-crazed murderers.
When the horde attacks a city of peace-loving
softies the elders send out a telepathic SOS to
someone called Taarna. We next see a
cloaked figure riding a flying creature that
looks as if it escaped from a starring role in a
Christmas dinner. They arrive at the ruins of a
vast structure and land at the foot of a statue
about a zillion miles high.

The rider removes the cloak and is revealed
to be a beautiful, naked girl with long blonde
hair and eyes like Clint Eastwood in a mean
mood. After taking a ceremonial swim in a
pool she slowly dresses in a costume that
consists of little more than black boots and a
few leather straps. She takes so long doing
this that by the time she reaches the city
everyone is dead, thus creating the
impression that as far as saviours go this one
is not exactly a model of efficiency ("Sorry I
missed the massacre, squire. Had trouble
with the knots on my leather G-string . . ."
Where would Superman be today if, every
time there was an emergency, he took several
hours to get into his costume? I ask youl).

Of course she redeems herself later on,
though first she has to undergo ritual
humiliation and torture at the hands of the
leader of the baddies, by plunging into the
Lochnar itself and destroying it.

The graphics and animation in this episode
are undoubtedly very impressive but I found
the story itself a little predictable and
overlong. And also, thanks to the lack of
humour, a little pretentious. I think it was a
mistake to end the movie with a long episode
devoid of humour but that's only a minor
criticism and didn't detract from my overall
enjoyment of the film.

I think I can safely say that if you’re a
science fiction or fantasy fan, an animation
freak or simply into 'AA' style sex and
violence you're going to like Heavy Metal.

Especially if you sit in the front row A

Oppotite: The giant space ship which makes an appearance in the segment So Beautiful and so
Dwigeroui. Opposite inset: The two alien acid-heads who star in the same story. Opposite inset:
Captain Stemn, from the story of the same name, who finds himself on trial for a huge number of
horrendous crimes. Above: One of Howard Chaykin's Futurock musicians from, the Taarna story.
Below left: This cartoon was produced by the staff animators in one of their slacker moments.
Below right: The prosecutor who appears in the Captain Stemn story.

Wyof AMICUS

In this the first pan of a restrospective look at the films of the Amicus production company, excerpted from the
forthcoming book The House That Dripped Blood: A History of Amicus. Phil Edwards and Alan Jones examine
the earliest of the Amicus productions, released between 1954 and 1959.

T he word Amicus is Latin for Friend. In
1954 two New Yorkers came together to
form a company that would eventually
use this name, their third film under this
banner being the landmark horror film in
1 964, Dr Terror's House of Horrors. They
would go on to produce a further twenty films
between them before the company dissolved
amidst intrigue and suspicion in 1974.

During this period 19M to 1974, Amicus
was the only company to have its own
particular brand image as distinctive as its
only rival in England, Hammer Film
Productions. The two men responsible for
this unique output were Max J. Rosenberg
and Milton Subotsky.

Max Rosenberg was born in New York City
on September 13, 1914 and was educated
. there, going on to attend law school. Upon his
graduation in 1 938, he entered the film
industry and during the Second World War,
he acquired the American distribution rights
to the British film I Met a Murderer starring
James Mason and Pamela Kellino. He
followed this by distributing other low budget
foreign-language films in the USA. Further
information on Rosenberg in these early
years is sketchy. He is a secretive man by
nature (our initial letter to him regarding this
history received no reply) rarely, if ever
granting interviews. His would seem to be a
world of financial wheeler-dealing and
speculation, specialising in the nebulous
areas of small exploitive film distribution and
financing.

Milton Subotsky was born in New York City

on September 27, 1921, and was educated at
Brooklyn Technical High School where he
majored in chemistry. From 1937 to 1942 he
studied chemical engineering, but showed an
interest in the arts and had wanted to make
films as a child. His family thought that the
film business was somewhat disreputable, so
he went to the Cooper Union School of
Engineering at night and during the day
worked at a job in a film company which he
had found by writing to every address in the
classifieds of the telephone directory. His job
as assistant cameraman really meant that he
did everything from loading the camera to
carrying the battery pack around. In 1939 the
company made a bid for a government film
on lathe operating and as Subotsky had
studied the subject at school, he was
assigned to script it. The bid wasn't accepted
but the incident did start him in
screenwriting.

In 1940 he became a member of the
American Television Soc/efy which was
organised to promote the infant industry. He
wrote and acted in several shows for children,
although in these early years most of the
audience consisted of television engineers
monitoring the programmes on tiny three
inch screens. In 1942 Subotsky enlisted in the
army and wrote technical training films for
the Signal Corps. One of the titles he will
never forget is Loading and Unloadiitg
Telegraph Poles From Flatcars in Sidings. He
went on to become an editor in the Corps'
photographic centre and also became editor
of the Fort Dix camp newspaper. Following

demobbing in 1946 he became sales
manager for a US film export company and in
1947 joined Billy Rose on his daily syndicated
newspaper column. Pitching Horseshoes.

In 1949 he formed his own television
production and distribution company and
wrote many scripts including Arch Oboler's
Lights Out The Kate Smith Hour. M.l.
Magination, The Ken Murray Hour and
Danger. He also acquired the rights to several
old feature films and westerns and started
selling them to television via a mailing list.
Some stations would only have half-hour
slots to fill, so he re-edited them to twenty-six
minute segments. It was a practice in film
editing that would prove useful in later years
when he would take an active interest in the
cutting of the Amicus films.

Subotsky met Rosenberg while he was still
at the television company. A group of
Harvard students had approached him for the
finance to finish a 16mm film called ATouch
of the Timos. Subotsky gave them the money
on the understanding that Rosenberg, who
had a company called Classic Pictures, would
distribute the feature. Rosenberg lost interest
in that film and dropped out of the
agreement. In 1954 Subotsky became
involved in a series of television programmes
called Junior Science, based on the books
After Dinner Science and Science Magic by
Kenneth M. Sweezy. Each fifteen minute film
explained a single principle of physics in the
form of an experiment which children could
do at home. Harvey Cort was the director and
Subotsky went to the only man he knew to

such as Girl of the Night (1960) and A Touch
of Love (1968).

The first Vanguard Production was Rock
Rock Rock (1956). Dori Grey's problems with
her father, her boyfriend Tommy and her
desire for a new strapless gown for her High
School Dance formed the very slim plot
premise. Milton Subotsky dusted off an old
unsold half-hour tv script he had written with
Phyllis Coe to use as the basis for the film,
after noting the instant commercial success
of the first rock and roll movie Rock Around
the dock in 1956. "I saw the review in Variety
and said to Max, 'Let's make the second rock
and roll film, I started listening for five hours a
day to rock and roll music and I wrote ten of
the twenty songs we used in the film. We did
the recording sessions in about three weeks
and we had the picture shooting in about four
weeks. We had the film shot and edited in
sixteen days and had it on the circuit as
quickly as possible."

Rock Rock Rock was the first film to use a high
percentage of black performers, including
Chuck Berry, The Flamingos and Frankie
Lymon. One of the songs co-written by
Subotsky for Frankie Lymon and the

Subotsky says, "Adding a serious plot like
that to a musical can be deadly. I don't think
Jamboree worked that well b^use every
time a musical number occurred, it fought the
story".

Merit seemed to have little to do with the
success of these films, although The
Hollywood Reporter thought the film was
superior to the general run of such pictures,
noting that the story made sense and
commenting that the dialogue of
screenwriter Leonard Kantner was fresh and
sharp.

"Brutal, degrading and degraded" was
how The Times described The Last Mile
(1958). Based on the famous stage play which
had starred Clark Gable in Los Angeles and
Spencer Tracy on Broadway in 1930. A film
version was first made in 1931 with Preston
Foster. As Subotsky recalls, "During the days
of my television feature film distribution
company,! discovered the first film version. It
was a hard hitting film about a prison revolt
among condemned men on Death Row
waiting to be dragged down the "last mile" to
the electric chair. I don't think the movie we
made, directed by Howard Koch, was as

Opposite: Call-girl Francis tells all to her psychiatrist Lloyd Nolan in Girl of the Night. Top left:
Mickey Rooney as the tough guy on Deeth Row in The Lett Mile. Below left: One of the inhabi-
tants of The City of the Dead. Above: Eleanor Bron and Sandy Dennis in the film version of
Margaret Orabbie's The Millstone, A Touch of Love.

raise the money for the thirteen episodes and
the two shared the profits. Junior Science ran
for many years in syndication and is today
distributed to schools by McGraw Hill, the
publishers.

It was then that the two men formed a
company that was initially called Vanguard
Productions. Written contracts were never
exchanged, their entire dealings over the
years were based on the trust of a handshake.

Rosenberg's main area of operation within
the company was that of raising the financial
backing for the various properties that
Subotsky would option for filming.
Subotsky's interests are eclectic — in his own
words, "I really like making any picture that is
entertaining". However, his predilection for
the macabre and fantastic is self evident if
one looks at the main body of Am/ci/s films.
Ho sees them as "Adult Fairy Tales"!
Rosenberg, although proud of the fact that
Amicus gave many directors their first
chances, once told Subotsky that for all he
cared, they (the horror films) could have been
a can of sardines. Rosenberg rarely interfered
with the creative side of the films unless they
were what he considered "serious subjects".

Teenagers, "Baby Baby", reached number
four in the British Top Ten. Another Frankie
Lymon song from the film, "I'm not a Juvenile
Delinquent", was also a minor, if more
enduring hK. Dori Grey was played by
newcomer T uesday Weld in her first film
performance, although her singing voice was
dubbed by Connie Francis.

Reviews of the time pointed out that most
of the technical credits were particularly low
grade. Variety blamed Subotsky and
Rosenberg for the poor production quality
and the musical direction saying, that the
sound recording was unusually bad and that
many of the numbers were completely out of
sync with the actors. They even took
exception to the phoney applause track which
was added in a similar way to the many
television shows of the time.

"A film which should satisfy all cats, cool
and hot" was the way the Daily Sketch
described Disc Jockey Jamboree, known
simply in America as Jamboree. Unlike Rock
Rock Rock, Disc Jockey Jamboree had a
serious plot which was insisted upon by
Warner Brothers and concerned the trials and
tribulations of the cutthroat music business.

successful as the original, remakes very
seldom are in my opinion. The star was
Mickey Rooney who quite frankly was no star
at all at this time. He did it solely for the
money, he didn't know his lines, he hadn't
even read the scripti I remember there was
this ridiculous press conference that Max set
up on the first day of shooting. Rooney said,
"This is a great picture — I can't wait to see
how it turns out."

The psychological problems faced by a
prostitute, based on the book The Call Girl by
Or Harold Greenwald, provided the basis for
Girl of the Night (1960), the first of two
Vanguard productions that didn't include a
credit for Subotsky, the other being Lad A
Dog.

Subotsky bought the rights from
Greenwald on the stipulation that the film
would be a serious study of the subject, the
first time a film of this nature would have
been presented on the screen without
sensationalism. Subotsky wrote the script
and then went to England to produce City of
the Dead. The script was rewritten in his
absence by Ted Berkam and Raphael Blau,
thereby losing the documentary realism that

style by the editor of Girl of the Night, Avram
Avakian, with additional scenes handled by
Leslie H. Martinson, the film is predictable
and syrupy; admittedly, two factors standard
for this type of film. "The dogs are quite nice",
commented the Monthly Film Bulletin at the
time.

The last Vanguard film. The World of
Abbott and Costello (1964) proved an
embarrassment to all concerned. This
compilation film used extracts from eighteen
Abbott and Costello features, including Buck
Privates (1941), Mexican Hayride (1948) and
Abbott and Costello Go To Mars (1953).

As Subotsky recalls, "I had worked on
compilation film before called Laugh Parade
which had Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Buster
Keaton and others in extracts from their films.
I thought it would be a good idea to do the
same for Abbott and Costello, two comedians
I admired very much. Their films were really
an excuse to incorporate their famous
vaudeville routines into a motion picture. I
thought of a way of connecting all the
routines I wanted to use with a simple
narration about them looking for a job. I
wanted to go to New York to edit it but Max

he had wanted instilled into it.

The story as adapted to the screen used a
composite of all the case histories in the book
distilled into one character, Bobbie Williams,
played convincingly by Anne Francis under
Joseph Gates' direction. The strong realistic
approach achieved by cinematographer
Joseph Brun in The Last Mile, was used again
here but to lesser effect. The film is
reminiscent of today's television features in
its use of artificial characterisation and
relationships, even though the intentions of
the film seem earnest enough.

Lad A Dog (1961) was based on the popular
children's books by Albert Payton Terhun,
which had been read and admired by
Subotsky as a child. He wrote a script that was
constant action from beginning to end, but
the mawkish weepie that the completed film
became was due to Jack Warner's dislike of
the script. It was rewritten by Lillie Hayward
and Roberta O. Hodes, the latter being the
associate producer as she had been on Girl of
the Night.

Made in California, the film details the love
of a crippled eight-year-old girl for a Collie
dog named Lad. Directed in an old-fashioned

thought he could handle it and I gave him a
list of the routines to use. Unfortunately, he
didn't think the pictures were very funny and
told me he thought they were repetitious, so
he ended up using a load of junk. No scene
ran long enough to build their routines and to
make it worse, he got a dreadful American
comedian. Jack Leonard, to speak Gene
Wood's narration."

The World of Abbott and Costello is most
notable as a reminder of the depths to which
the great horror films of the 30s and 40s were
dragged in the early 50s. Variety, however,
thought the film a winner and was actually
looking forward to a sequel.

While The World of Abbott and Costello
was being edited in New York by Max
Rosenberg, Subotsky was in England
supervising the production of Dr Terror's
House of Horrors, their second horror film,
but the first to appear under the banner of
Amicus. The first real "Amicus" film was
Vulcan's City of the Dead in 1959 which
wasn't Milton Subotsky's first brush with the
horror genre at all as after Rock Rock Rock he
had wanted to do a colour remake of
Frankenstein. "I wrote a script which was very

Oppotita page: A series oftctnet from tht 1959 shocker City of tha Daad which starred
Christopher Lae. Above: Whispering Paul McDowell end the Temperance Seven in lt'» Trad, DadI
Above right: A scene from Disc Jockay Jamboiaa. Below: Bud Abbott end Lou Costello fool
around with waxworks in Abbott and Cottailo Maat Frankenatain, one of tha many routines
featured in the Amicus compilation movie Tha World of Abbott and Coctallo.

close to the original Mary Shelley story and
took it to Elliot Hyman at Seven Arts who said,
“What do you guys know about horror? You
make musicals!, I couldn't believe it, after one
film we were typecast! He said he would send
it to Jimmy Carreras at Hammer Films in
London and we wound up getting a payment
for originating the idea and a percentage of
the profits for The Curse of Frankenstein."
Michael Carreras has since refuted this but
Subotsky has the letter and the original script
to prove his point.

CMy of the Dead was an original story
written by Subotsky that George Baxt had
adapted as a screenplay. He went to England
when Max told him he had done a co-
financing deal there, one of the companies
involved being Hannah Weinstein's, the
company responsible for such television
series as Robirt Hood, Ivarthoe and The
Buccaneers. Subotsky, "She supposedly had
a new studio set up so I went to England to
find that there really wasn't a deal at all. Also
that the studio was closing, that my salary
was stopped after only three weeks and that
the Baxt script was only 60 minutes long as
they thought it was going to be a support
film." Subotsky realised that he would have
to renegotiate the deal and write an extra
twenty minutes of script to make it acceptable
as a main feature. He took the story of Nan
Barlow {Vertetia Stevenson) being persuaded
by her suspicious history lecturer
(Christopher Lee) to visit the New England
village of Whitewood where she finds herself
at the mercy of a witches coven under the
auspices of Mrs. Newless (Patricia Jessel),
and added a new character. "I added Nan's
boyfriend who goes to look for her after her
disappearance and I thought it looked
seamless in the finished film. It had a classic
structure and what is interesting is that we
had the heroine killed off halfway through the
film and another girl going to look for her who
finds herself in the same situation. This was
similar to Psycho, but we did it first".

The film, shot in black and white and
budgeted at £45,000, was the directorial
debut of John (Llewellyn) Moxey who has
sirtce become a respected director of
television fantasy like Tha Night Stalker and

The House that Wouldn't Die. "And I think he
did a good job", says Subotsky. This opinion
was not reflected at the time; 'Something of a
horror comic and the witches overact
monotonously' said The Monthly Film
Bulletin. In retrospect however, the film has
considerably more effect than most of its
contemporary rivals with its taut, sparse
direction and eerie artificial atmosphere. It
also moves along at a brisk pace and is never
boring. The film's prologue showing the
burning of Elizabeth Selwyn at the stake,

(who in reincarnation is Mrs Newless), still
retains its shock value and echoes Mario
Bava's extraordinary Black Sunday/Revenge
of tha Vampire. Interestingly enough this was
the film that Subotsky showed to director Roy
Ward Baker and art director Tony Curtis when
he was trying to show them what effect was
after in the ghoul story in his recent
production of Tha Monster Club. Castle of
Frankenstein magazine also looked back or), it
affectionately calling it "An enjoyable British
thriller".

One thing that Subotsky emphatically
denies is that the film was made to cash in on
the then current popularity of the horror

genre. "I certainly didn't see it that way,
although it may have been this that prompted
the backers to finance it".

The film did very well in the United
Kingdom but in the USA Rosenberg couldn't
get a distribution deal, "And as a result he
didn't trust it. He wound up cutting it by ten
minutes and adding 3D sequences from a
terrible Canadian film directed by Julian
Roffman, (The Mask — eventually released as
Eyes of Hell)". Eventually however, these
sequences were taken out and Horror Hotel
was released with a campaign that said "Ring
for [}oom Service". The cut footage was
never replaced in the American prints.

Milton Subotsky remained in England after
the release of City of the Deed and convinced
Rosenberg that the production arm of the
company should continue to use England as a
base primarily because of the lower
production costs. This was the beginning of a
new style of operation for the two producers.
Max stayed in New York rarely visiting
England, and then for only short periods of
time, the main method of communication
between the two men being by letter and
telephone conversations.

15F"^

THE AMICUS
FILMOGRAPHY

CrTYOFTHEDEADIUS HOfWORHOm). Britannia
Filmt/British Lion 1959. Scf— nplay. Ooorga Baxt from a
story by Milton Subotsky. Oiractod by Jot>n Moxay. Starnr>g
Christoper Lm. Bana St. John, Patricia Jassal.
rrs TRAD, DAD (US: RMG-A-OMG RHYTHM). Columbia
1960. Scraanplay Milton Subotsky. Oiractad by Dick Lastar
Starring Helan Shapiro, Craig Douglas. Chubby Chackar.
JUST FOR FUN. Columbia 1961. Scraanplay Milton
Subotsky. Diractad by Gordon Flamyng. Starring Mark
Wynter. Bobby Vea. Tha Crickats.

DR TBtROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS. Paranr>ount/Bntish
Lion 1964. Scraanplay Milton Subot^. Oiractad by Fraddia
FrafKts. Starrir>g Patar Cushing, Christophar Laa, Donald
Sutherland.

THE SKULL Paramount 1965. Scraartplay Milton Subotsky
from the story "The Skull of the Marquis da Seda" by Rob^
Bloch. Diract^ by Fraddia Francis. Starring Pater Citing,
Patri ck Wy*^ric. Christopher Lae.

YHE DEADLY BEES. Paramount 1965. Scraanplay Robert
Bloch from the novel "A Taste for Honey" by H.F. Heard.
Oiractad by Fraddia FrarKts. Starring Suzaruta Leigh, Frank
Finley, Guy Oolaman.

DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEK8. British Lion 1966
Scraanplay Milton Subotsky from the BBC tv serial by Tarry
Nation. Oiractad by Gordon Flamyrtg. Starrir>g Patar
Cushirtg, Jarmie LirxJan. Roy Castle.

THE PSYCHOPATH. Paramount 1965. Scraanplay Robert
Bloch. Oiractad by Freddie FrarKts. Starrir>g Patrick Wymark.
Margaret Johrtson. John Standing.

OALBCS MVASION EARTH, 2150 AO. British Lion 1966.
Screenplay Milton Subotsky from the BBC tv serial by Tarry
Nation. Oiractad by Gordon Flemyng. Starring Pater
Cushing, Bernard CribbirK, Ray Brooks.

THE TERRORNAUTS. Avco Emba^ 1966. Screenplay John
Brunner from the rwval "Tha Wailing Asteroid" by Murray
Leinster. Oiractad by Mor^tgomery Tully. Starrirtg Sinx>n
Oates, Stanley Meadovrs, Zana Marshall.

THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE. Avco Embassy 1966
Scraaf>play Milton Subotsky from tha rKval 'The Gods Hate

Karlas" by Joseph Millard. Oiractad by Fraddia Francis.
Starring Robert Hutton. Jennifer JayrK. Zia Moyhaddin.
TORTURE GARDBi. Columbia 1966. Scraanplay Robert
Bloch from four of his short stories. Diractad by Fraddia
Francis. Starrir>g Jack Palanca. Burgess Meredith. Pater
Cus hing.

DANGB1 ROUTC. United ArtiM 1967. Scraanplay Meade
Roberts from the rKval "Tha Elimir>ator" by Ar>draw York.
Oiractad by Seth HoH. Starrir>g Richard Johnson, Carol
Lvniay, Barbara Bouchet.

THEBWTHDAYPARTY.Palomar Pictures InterrKtiortal 1968.
ScraerH>lay Harold Pirttar from his play. Oiractad by William
Friadkin. ^arrir>g Robert Shaw. Patrick Magee. OarKly
Nichols.

A TOUCH Of LOVE (US: THANK YOU ALL VBtY MUCH).
Columbia/British Lion 1968. Scraanplay Margaret Drabble
from her novel "The Millstor>a". DirectX by Waris Hussein.
Starring Sandy Dermis. Ian McKellan, Michael Colas.

THE MMO OF MMTER 80AME8. Columbia 1969. Screenplay
John Hale and Edward Simpson from the rK)val by Eric
Simpson from the novel by Eric Charles Mair>e. Diractad by
Alan Cooke. Starririg TerarKa Stamp. Robert Vaughn, Nigel
Devanport.

SCREAM AND SCREAM AQAM. AlP 1969 Scraanplay
Christophar Wicking from the rKval "Tha Oisoriantatad
Man" by Patar Saxon. Diractad by Gordon Hasslar. Starrir>g
Patar Cushing. Christophar Laa. Vincent Price.

THE HOUSE THAT D fW P PC D BLOOD. Cinerama International
1970. Scraertplay Robert Bloch from four of his short stories.
Oiractad by Pater Duffall. Starrir>g Christopher Laa, Pater
Cushing, lr)grid Pitt.

L MONSTBt British Lion 1970. Screenplay Milton Subotsky
from "Dr Jakyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Lixiis Stevenson.
Directed by Stephan Wa^. Starrir>g Christopher Lee, Pater
Cushir>g, Mike Raven.

VWfAT BECAME OF JACK AND JNX7 Palomar Pictures
IntamatiorKi 1971 . Scraar>play Roger Marshall from the
rKvel "The Ruthless Orws" by LaurarKe Moody. Directed by
Bill Bam. Starring Vanessa Howard. Morta Washbouma, Paul
Nicholas.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT. Metromadia/Cinarama 1971.
Screenplay Milton Subotsky based on stories from EC
Comics published by William M. Gaines. Diractad by Fraddia
FrarKis. Starring Joan Collms. Pater Cushing. Ralph

Richardson. _

ASYLUM. Cinarama/CIC 1972. Scraanplay Robert Bloch
from four of his short stories. Diractad by Roy Ward Baker.
Stamrig Peter Cushing. Britt Eklartd, Herbert Lorn.

AND NOW THE SCREAMMQ STARTS, anerama 1972.
Scraertplay Roger Marshall from tha novel "Fartgriffen" by
Roger Casa. Diractad by Roy Ward Elaker. SUrrirtg Peter
Cuehir>g, Stephenie Beechem. Herbert Lorn.

THE VAULT OF HORROR. Metronwlie/Cinarame 1972.
ScreefH>lsy Milton Subotsky besed on stories by A1 Faldstein
arnJ William M. Gairtes publishad in EC Comics. Diractad by
Roy Ward Beker. Starring Dawn Addams. Tom Baker,
Michael Craig.

MADHOUSE. AlP 1973. Scraanplay Greg Morrison artd Ken
Levirtson from the rtovel "Oevildav" by Ar>gus Hall. Oiractad
by Jamas Clark. Starrirtg VirKant Price, Patar Cushirtg,
Robert Quarry.

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. Warner Brothers 1973.
Scraanplay Robin Darke and Raymor>d Christodoulou from
four short stories by R. ChatMryrKFHayas. Diractad by Kevin
Cormof. Starring Ian Bannan. Ian Carmichael, Patar Cushing.
THE BEAST MUST DC. British Lion 1973. Scraanplay
Michaal Winder from tha story "Thera shall be no Oarkr>ass"
by Jamas Blish. Diractad by Paul Annatt. Starring Calvin
Lockhart Patar Cushing, Charles Gray.

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. AlP/Brrtish Lion 1974.
Scraanplay Jamas Cawthom and Michaal Moorcock from
tha novel Edgar Rica Burroughs. Diractad by Kevin
Connor. Starring Doug McDura, John McEnary, Susan
Panhaligon.

AT THE EARTH'S CORE. AiP/Brittsh Lion 1976. Scraanplay
MiKon Subotsky from tha novel by Edgar Rica Burroughs.
Diractad by Kevin Connor. Starring Doug McClura, Patar
Cushing, Carolina Munro.

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L«ft: 77 m original US potter
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1950. The golden
yeers of Hollywood
horror were past. With
the coming of the
Atomic Age, science
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the vogue. What horrors
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Top row, left to right:

Voodoo Idand (1957) wm
ona of tfia poorar horror
offarings of Ifta flfttag,
datpita tha prataoca of
Boris Karloff, hi Th*
Tarrorfrom Bayond
Spaca (1958) was a taut
sciarKa fiction thriHar to
which tha mora raeant
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Bottom row, left to
right: A dalightful
axampia of tha postar
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Tha protagonist Is cap-
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and bacomas a thiaf and
murdarar. Thasuparb
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Tha Night of the
Damon. Diractadby
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Y *>■

Y es, I know I reviewed Superman a few
issues back, but that was an 18-minute
condensation. Now comes a superb 50
minute featurette from Portland Films, 45
New Oxford Street, London WC1 at £69.95.
There's a lot to be said for these 50 minute
features. They're long enough to get the story
in, and tight enough never to be boring. The
action in Superman never lets up.

The film comes on three individual reels,
though is bought as a whole. However, you
may find some shops selling reels
individually. Part One features a generous
portion of the Krypton sequence, beginning
with the trial and sentencing of the three
super villains who feature in Superman II. The
remainder of this reel takes us through
Superbaby's journey to Earth, complete with
a monologue from Marlon Brando, and the
boy's adoption into the Kent family. Here, Jeff
East gets a chance to show his talents as the
young Clark Kent who is frustrated at having
his super powers but unable to reveal them,
except by racing an express train. Part One
ends with the emergence of the Fortress of
Solitude and Superman's first flying shot.
The audience I showed this to in a large hall
applauded at the first glimpse of Supie in his
red tights and blue pants taking off I
Part Two takes us through the establishing
sequences of Supennan. Such as his rescue
of the helicopter, his capture of a whole boat-
load of villains and his growing relationship
with Lois Lane. There is also humour when
Clark Kent faints when he and Lois are
mugged. But he does manage to secretly
catch the bullet fired at Lois.

The story doesn't really take off until the
final reel when Superman averts the
destruction of America's West Coast and
brings Lois back to life by turning time back
when she is crushed in an earthquake.

Don't feel too despondent if you've already
rushed out and bought the shorter version.

There are many scenes in the d/gest which
are not included in this longer version which
can be neatly edited in to make something like
one hour's running time, complete with a
caption promising "Next year. Superman II."

The print and colour definition are
excellent, as is the sound. The proof of the
pudding was in showing the film on a large
screen, as I did, on which a 16mm film had
also been presented. The audience didn't
know the difference which shows that Super
8 has a versatility to it that is too often
underrated.

It never ceases to amaze me how the
editing down of a full feature film into digest
form can turn a mediocre movie into an
entertaining short. Such is the case with
Saturn 3, distributed by Walton Films, 87
Richford Street, London W7, with the price
varying around £30 according to individual
stores.

It runs for 18 minutes, and with a plot as
simple as it is, that's really all it takes to make
the message clear, ft's not a film to produce
great performances. The most I can
remember about Farrah Fawcett is her smile
while Kirk Douglas struts out his dimpled chin
valiantly at every opportunity. It's Hector, the
robot, who steals the glory and who gives us
the film's best shock moments, such as when
he slices off Harvey Keitel's hand and then
borrows his head.

The effects are certainly impressive but it's
John Barry's sets that remain the most vivid
of the film's visual aspects. It's a film that
should have a niche in every sf movie
collector's home cinema.

If you've grown bored with the cheaper and
far less enthralling installment of Buck
Rogers on the box recently, I recommend you
take a good dose of the pilot, or the cinema
release version, whichever way you look at it.

Buck Rogers runs for about thirty four
minutes and is available from Derann Film

Services Ltd., 99 High Street, Dudley, West
Midlands at ^7.95.

Gil Gerard makes a handsome enough
Buck Rogers although he does tend to look
like many of today's tv stars. You know, sort
of a cross between Lee Majors and you-
mention-him. He is assisted by the inevitable
robot and the gorgeous Erin Gray as
Commander Wilma Deering. There's another
tasty bird in the shape of Pamela Hensley as
the naughty Prirtcess Ardala. Her sinister
assistant is played by veteran screen villain
Henry Silva. Unlike the tv series, this movie
features an abundance of special effects and
outer-space battles. I know we've seen it all
before, with space ships firing lasers left,
right and centre, but it still beats what we get
on telly.

If you prefer something with a little more
guts to it, may I suggest John
Frankenheimer's Prophesy, a 50-minute
feature from Derann at £85.95

It's all about going down to the woods and
finding more than a teddy bear's picnic, as
Robert Foxworth and Talia Shire discover
when they go studying forest environments.
They stumble across several horrible
mutations, like a tadpole the size of a salmon,
and a mutated baby of some kind. Clever old
Foxworth finds that the cause of these
mutations is the mercury that is used in a
nearby pulp mill which has polluted the local
lake.

Things get hairy when a family out
camping is attacked by a bear-like creature
which later turns on Foxworth and his
expedition, resulting in a sickening climax. All
good stuff in excellent colour with a masked-
off print to give a wide-screen shape. There is
also a gory 17-minute extract available at
£30.95 which concentrates on the film's
nastiest moments. Just the film to round off
the evening with I A

I f s been interesting to watch how For Your
Eyes Only has been doing at the box
office compared with Raiders of the Lost
Aril which, as I said in my review of the film
back in issue 37, owes a lot to the Bond series
(and another critic described Raiders as "a
Bond movie on speed"). In America, old
Indiana Jones has run circles round Bond,
having grossed at least three times as much
money at the time of writing (I don't have the
exact figures to hand) and making it pretty
obvious that American audiences are
beginning to lose their traditional enthusiasm
for 007.

In England the situation is different in that,
to begin with. For Your Eyes Only was the
clear winner at the box office but as the
months have gone by Raiders has proved it's
got the better 'legs' of the two maintaining a
high position on Screen International's
weekly Top Ten Films list while the Bond
movie slid downwards. ! think the reason for
Raiders' continued popularity is a growing
word-of-mouth about the movie (its initial
publicity campaign is poorly handled, I felt,
and the trailer for it was appalling — it failed to
capture the unique feel of the movie) while on
the other hand For Your Eyes Only has failed
to create a similar momentum of popularity.
For example, hands up all of you who have
seen Raiders more than once? Right, now
who has been back to see the Bond movie for
a second or third time? Yes, just as I thought.

For Your Eyes Only is by rK) means a flop.
It's done very well in several countries, apart
from England, and even in America it did
okay. But the problem is that these days
doing 'okay' in the American market, which
remains the important one, is not good
enough for a movie that costs as much as the
Bonds do. It was the American reaction to
Moonraker that led to Broccoli to try to
rejuvenate the series by taking a different
approach with For Your Eyes Only and I'm
curious to see what he does with the next one,
Octopussy. Will the so-called 'tough'
approach be maintained, will there be a
reversion back to the style of The Spy Who
Loved Me and Moonraker (plus a return to the
usual plot), or will Broccoli decide to try and
beat the Lucas/Spielberg mob at their own
game (just as they beat him at his?) Will the
next Bond bear a striking resemblance to
Raiders in style? (And will Roger Moore turn
up at some point wielding a bull-whip?) I
wouldn't mind betting that it will (and he
does).

The Bond series could certainly do with
something to beef it up. Despite the breath-
taking stuntwork in For Your Eyes Only the
overall impression was one of tiredness.
Compared to Raiders it seemed a creaky and
old-fashioned movie. Where the Bonds once
set the pace for the commercial film industry
they have now been left far behind by the new
bre^ of action movies. They are no longer
innovatory, they are merely expensive copies
of older Bond movies with each action set-
piece inspired by an earlier one (can you think
of anything in For Your Eyes Only that didn't
remind you of something you'd seen in a
previous Bond?).

The Bonds need an injection of new ideas
accompanied by a fresh approach to the
character of Bond himself (the 'new'
approach in For Your Eyes Only was anything
but fresh). One thing is for certain — looking
for either ideas or originality in John

Gardner's James Bond novel Licence
Renewed is a waste of time.' As an attempt to
continue the line of books by updating
Fleming's Bond and bringing him into the
1980s it's a crashing disappointment, from
the bland Richard Chopping cover through to
the contrived plot and weak climax. It's a
lifeless piece of work but why should one
expect otherwise? The James Bond novels
written by Fleming remain interesting
because they were written by someone who
had an emotional involvement with what he
was writing. Even the worst of the books,
written when Fleming was tired of the whole
thing, contain a great deal of Fleming himself
and it's this obsessive quality that lifts them
out of the realm of hackwork and into the
category of low art. Licence Renewed,
however, is a hack novel. A high-class hack
novel but a hack novel nonetheless.

It's not even a particularly competent hack
novel. Gardner makes an incredibly huge

technical error that shows that his grasp of
the subject he's writing about — nuclear
power stations — is somewhat shaky, to say
the least. His villain. Dr Anton Murik (a funny
little man with the movements and gestures
of "a grounded bird") plans to sabotage six
nuclear power stations unless he is paid a
huge ransom — a reasonable enough plot
device but then Gardner goes on to explain
what will happen when a reactor goes wild;
"The core itself would become so hot that
nothing could stop it, right through the
Earth — rock, earth, metal — nothing could
stand in its way. Right through to China, Mr
Bond . . ."

Surely he's joking, you think, but further on
Mr Gardner, via Dr Murik, gives another
lecture on tlie subject; "TTie core of the
reactor will proce^ to burn its way through
the earth. Eventually the core will find an exit
point (my itaiics) where further, possibly
more devastating, radioactive material will

nice and I take them out." What a lovely
image that conjures up — ^Winner at his local
Indian restaurant with Mitchum, Brando and
Bronson who have all turned unexpectedly
on the same weekend — the three super stars
glowering at each other through hooded eyes
while Winner chirps happily on in his
inimitable manner.

Winner also gave an interesting insight into
his working methods; "There is always
something to do like screen writing or
gardening . . ." This explains movies he's
made like The Senf/na/ which I finally caught
up with recently. It had all the earmarks of
something that had been dug up out of
somebody's garden.

Actually that gives me an idea for a movie —
there is Michael Winner out in his garden
when suddenly there's a rumbling sound and
out pops one of John Gardner's high-speed
runaway nuclear reactors on its way to
China ... ^

be expelled. That is known, to those who have
not heard of it, as the China Syndromel

Good grief! I cried when I read the above
paragraph and realized that Gardner has
taken the term 'China Syndrome' literally. He
actually believes that a runaway nuclear core
would burn its way all the way down to the
molten centre of the world and then defy
gravity by burning its way up the other side!
Frankly I find it rather mind-boggling that
anyone could be so ignorant about such basic
scientific knowledge in this day and age but
you'd at least expect a writer who is being
paid a large amount of money to write a book
to go to the trouble of making sure he
understands the scientific terms he is using in
his story. It's the sort of blunder that would
have horrified Fleming himself who was
always meticulous about the research he did
for his novels.

By the way, there have been rumours that
License Renewed w\\\ be filmed after

Bond out-Bonded. Mott certainly, according to John
Brotnan. So \Mhare to now for the Bond movies. Should
Cubby Broccoli rethink hit winning formula. Will Bond
turn up in Octoputty wielding a whip? Watch this space!

Octopussy and that Sean Connery will be
lured back to the part of Bond seeing as much
of the story is set in Scotland, but I doubt if
this will happen. Apart from the story being a
bit feeble for a Bond movie, in my opinion,
Connery will be getting rather long in the
tooth by the time they get around to making
it. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if
Octopussy turns out to be the last Bond
movie in the series — or at least the last one for
a number of years.

I'm not a great fan of the films of Michael
Winner but I must admit I was entertained by
a piece he wrote in the London Standard
recently describing how he spends a typical
weekend. The most amusing bit was this one:
"I find quite a few weekends are taken up
because suddenly the phone will ring, and
someone has come over from America. It wi II
be Robert Mitchum, or Brando, or Charles
Bronson saying; 'I've arrived,' which is very

N ew British sf writers are too few and
too far between these days. It’s hard to
know why — certainly the Americans
continue to produce new discoveries at a rate
of knots, even if some of them are writers one
would prefer to have been left undiscovered!
Part of the reason may be the lack of short-
story magazines, where new writers can
develop their skills before moving on to tackle
a novel (in which case new magazines such as
the one mentioned in my last column will be
doubly welcome). Part of it may be the
deadline of the British empire, or the weather.
Who knows?

Be that as it may, there are new talents
around, such as Christopher Evans, whose
second novel The Insider {faber, C6.9S) has
just been published. Evans is a young Welsh
writer (and should not be confused with the
writer and broadcaster Dr Christopher Evans
who died last year), whose debut, Capella's
Golden Eyes, was a well-received portrayal of
life on a distant colony world. In his second
novel he stays closer to home. The Insider is
set in Britain a few years in the future, and is
about a man whose mind is taken over by an
alien intruder.

The alien in question crash-landed in
London during the Blitz and was fatally
injured, but managed to possess the body of
a fourteen-year-old boy, George Blair. As
Blair it lived out the next fifty years, aware of
its alien origins but lacking most of its original
memories, which were lost in the process of
takeover. The alien Blair becomes a solitary
writer, avoiding as far as possible contact
with other people; he can not reconcile
himself to being part of the human race. Then
Blair has a fatal heart attack, and the
transference takes place again: the alien
takes over the mind of the only human close
to hand, Stephen Marsh, a successful
management consultant in early middle age
and — more importantly — a gregarious family

man. For the first time it is forced to deal at
close emotional quarters with other humans,
and the body of the novel deals with its
groping attempts to come to terms with being
a member of the human race.

All this takes place against the background
of a Britain a decade or so hence, sliding
further into decline and into the grip of an
unpleasantly authoritarian National Front-
like right-wing government. This is hardly
ever in the forefront of the story, but if s well-
realized and convincing.

As for the novel itself: it's smoothly written
and readable, with convincingly presented
characters. My only real complaint with it lies,
oddly enough, with its scier>ce fiction idea.
Alien invaders taking over human bodies are
a bit old hat. Admittedly there are differences
here: it's a solitary alien intent only on self-
preservation, and the process of transfer
involves leaving behind most of the
memories of its previous life, so that though
it's aware of being non-human it can't
remember the details. But when it comes
down to it, I don't think Christopher Evans is
particularly convinced 1^ or interested in this
kind of stuff. His main concern is with creating
a character suddenly alienated from the
previously secure facts of his existence —
Marsh's family and friends become strangers
to him after the takeover, and ho becomes
equally strange to them. Their conclusion is
that he's having some kind of mental
breakdown, and after a while the alien Marsh
isn't so su re that they aren't right. What if he's
dreamed up all this stuff about an alien past,
and half a century in George Blair's body?
What he thinks of as objective proof of his
Blair-existence turns out to be far from
unassailable.

This kind of ambiguity is, to me, a much
more fruitful subject for exploration, and in a
sense a much purer science-fictional
aooroach to the subject, because if you

were an alien in another body, with nothing
but rather vague memories to prove this to
you, there clearly would be some doubt as to
which set of memories were the real ones;
thus it's true to the implications of the idea.
Unfortunately, though. The Insider starts off
much too unambiguously, and these doubts
only creep in towards the end of the book. For
all that, it's an interesting piece of work, and
gets Christopher Evans over the novelist's
traditional greatest difficulty: that of
producing a worthwhile second novel which
isn't just a retread of the first. I look forward to
his third with interest.

A few years ago the Science Fiction Writers
of America polled their members to find their
all-time favourite sf stories and issued the
results in three fat anthologies under the
general title of the Science Fiction Hall of
Fame. They were solid, enjoyable, if generally
conservative selections, and still comprise a
pretty good introduction to tradKional
middle-of-the-road sf. Now a fourth volume
has been published (Gollancz, £8.95), edited
by Arthur C. Clarke and containing all the
short stories, novelettes and novellas which
won Nebula Awards in the years 1965-69. A
fifth and sixth volume can doubtless be
exF>ected in due course.

Clarke's job as editor can hardly have been

onerous, since there was no choice about
what stories to include. He was doubtless
asked to do it because his name would help
sell the book. Fair enough, but he also
provides a three-page introduction which I
could have done without. He manages to tell
us that he once nearly won an Oscar; that he
has won three Nebula Awards; that he
resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences; and that all the authors are
his chums. Small wonder his nicknarhe used
to be Egol

The stories themselves . . . well, there are
16 in all, by 13 writers (Samuel Oelany, Harlan
Ellison and Roger Zelazny have two each — a
pretty accurate reflection of Where It Was
supposed to be At in American sf in the late
19^). Not many of them would have been
my personal choice for the best of their year,
but there's some good stuff here; Zelazny's
"He Who Shapes", which he later expanded
into the novel The Dream Master, but which I
prefer in this shorter, tighter version; Leiber's
"Gonna Roll The Bones," a classic fantasy
about a man playing dice with the Devil;
Moorcock's "Behold The Man," to which the
same remarks apply as for the Zelazny;
Silverberg's brilliantly concise horror-sf short
story "Passengers," which is about people
whose bodies are taken over by aliens but is

otherwise totally dissimilar to Christopher
Evan's novel. There's a nice H.G. Wells
pastiche by Brian Aldiss; Harlan Ellison's
later-to-be-a-movie "A ^y and his Dog"
(also his hugely over-rated "Repent
HarlequinI Said the Ticktockman"); two
stories by Samuel Delany that I've always
found unreadable; and lots more. Two
exemplify for me the worst in sf : Gordon
Dickson's "Call Him Lord," which tells us that
if you're a coward you deserve to be killed,
and Anne McCaffrey's romantic (in the worst
sense) "Dragonrider," which became part of
her first Dragon novel and helped launch
science fiction into a long slide towards
sentimental, whimsical fantasy. But that's
just my opinion: millions of readers love
them. With 672 pages this is a good fat
anthology, and probably 1981's best
Christmas present for the up-and-coming sf
fan.

Another good buy is James Blish's Cities in
Plight (Arrow, C2.50) an omnibus edition of
four Blish novels previously only available
separately. Good, sweeping, galactic stuff
this, the central invention being a device
which enables you to fly whole terrestrial
cities off into space. It climaxes with the end
of the Universe. This is Arrow's second Blish
omnibus of recent months, and earns them

The Claw of
the Conciliator

GENE WOLFE

•biHohn-boutle&i

another bonus mark.

The second volume of Gene Wolfe's "Book
of the New Sun" tetralogy is now available
here: The Claw of the Conc///aror(Sidgwick &
Jackson, E7.95). As I've said before, much as I
admire Wolfe I haven't yet taken to this
admittedly well-written fantasy epic. This
second part seems rather static, and I suspect
one will have to wait until the entire work is
published to see what Wolfe is up to. I still
have hopes that he will pull off something
remarkable, but I'd advise you to wait for the
paperback to see.

Yet more news of great wads of money
finding their way into the pockets of various
authors. Frank Herbert has apparently signed
up to do a fifth Dune novel (wouldn't you
know it?), at a staggering reported advance of
one-and-a-half /n////o/7 dollars for North
American rights only. (These huge advances
are generally from publishers buying world
rights and hoping to recoup much of the
outlay from overseas sales.) Also up in the
seven figure league (I can remember the days
not so long ago when a five-figure advance
for an sf or fantasy novel was considered
pretty hot stuff!) is a collaboration between
Stephen King and Peter (Ghost StoryiSxtaub.
It's entitled The Talisman, and is described as
"an epic quest fantasy-horror tale full of
adventure, the supernatural and the
contemporary American landscape." The
exact figure paid for it hasn't been revealed,
but it's somewhere between one and two
million dollars. The idea apparently came
from a dream of King's ... I really must start
to keep a notebook by the side of my bed I

This information, like much of the news in
this column, comes from the American sf
news magazine Locus. If you want to keep up
with what's happening in the sf world, this is
the magazine to get. It's a monthly, and
subscriptions cost £1 .00 a year seamail or
£16.00 a year airmail, from Fantast (Medway)
Ltd, 39 West Street, Wisbech, Cambs, PE 13
2LX. “

KUrDLAYlND GAMES

Science Fiction and Fantasy Games now have a cult foHowing on both sides of the Atlantic. In
this feature Steve Jackson explains why they have become so popular.

S ome seven years ago, in a small town in the
American mid-West, two gamers were putting
together a game which was to create a whole
new hobby around itself; a hobby which has become
the nrast rapidly-expanding hobby in the US and
which grosses over S2S, 000,000 a year.

This hobby has not yet decided on a name for itself.

In Britain such games are "Fantasy Games" or "Role-
Playing Games". In the States, supposedly so as to
nnake them more acceptable to a family market they
are known as "Adventure Games". In fact all these
are appropriate descriptions. The games are almost
all based on Fantasy or Science Fiction themes. In
them players take on the roles of the characters they
play. They embark on adventures as individual
characters.

If all that doesn't sound particularly remarkable and
you are still wondering why all the fuss let me
elaborate to say that these games are not
competitive, but co-operative. There are no winners
or losers. There is no board— in fact all equipment is
really only an optional extra. Nor is there an end to
the games— they are all played as a series of
adventures which sH interlink. Rnally, new players
need know nothing about the rules to begin playing,
although the rules themselves can be many pages
long I

The original fantasy role-playing adventure game is
Dungeons & Dragons invented by Gary Gygax and
Dave Ameson in 1974. As the original it is the best-
known and the best seller although many more
experienced gamers now prefer games such as
Traveller, RuneQuest and Tunnels & Trolls
respectively as 'Science Fiction', 'More Coherent'
and 'Simpler' variations on the role-playing theme.

In fact. Traveller and RunQuest are now following
hot on the heels of Dungeons & Dragons (known as
D&D to its afhcionados) in Britain perhaps even more
so than in the US, both now being painted in England
I will review only outlines of these games.

The games mentioned above are all different but
are similar to each other in the same sort of way that
Cluedo and Careers are similar to Monopoly. This
similarity is the role-playing concept.

In all role-playing games, a GamesMaster is
necessary. The GamesMaster (or GM) must design
the world, be it dungeon or starship, that the other
players will adventure in. He is a sort of 'God' in his
own game-world. I will continue by describing, for
convenience, a fantasy role-playing game which could
be Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest or Tunnels &
Trolls. Traveller, a science fiction role-playing game
('role-playing game' is usually shortened to RPG)
would run in the same sort of way but for "dungeon"
you would read "planet" and for "monster" read
"alien". Traveller characters are not of course
Wizards and Fighters, but are Interplanetary
Explorers, Merchants and Generals.

In a Fantasy RPG, the GM begins by designing a
dungeon in secret. This dungeon will be, at its
simplest, a series of rooms connected by passages
are these are drawn out on his dungeon's plan. Using
a convenient keying method, the GM indicates which
rooms contain treasure (gold coins or magic items)
and which contain monsters, which usually guard the
treasure. He can also use his own imagination to
position traps, puzzles, secret passages or even
idiosyncratic artifacts around the dungeon.

If ^is sounds like hard work, there are dozens of
pre-designed dungeons available for sale these days
but whether the dungeon is original or purchased,
this will be the game "world" that the other players
explore. The players never see the dungeon but must
explore 'blind' in an attempt to seek out the treasure.
As the GM turns up at a session with his dungeon

Wi'»r

hidden away in his folder, the other players start to
"roll up characters." By throwing dice, scores are
obtained for characteristics such as "Strength"
"Intelligence", "Constitution" etc. and thus a
Personality Profile of each player's game-character
emerges. Some characters will be strong but
exceedingly dim whilst others will be strong and
smart but may have a low charisma and will thus be
unpopular with their fellow characters.

Players then opt to become either Wizards (who
can use magic) Heroes (Good Fighters), Clerics (a bit
of both) or Thieves in the adventuring party and the
adventure can begin.

The GM unfurls his maps and the players prepare
for their adventure as he describes their situation:

GM: "You are walking through a forest in search of
the Great Black T ree of Kob which you believe guards
the entrance to the Hobgoblin Stockade. You see a
large dead tree, obviously struck by lightening some
time ago, in the centre of a clearing in front of you.
What do you want to do?"

The pl^rs will have a little conference amongst
themselves and then the spokesman may say:

WIZARD: "We approach the tree and look around
the base."

GM: (Checks his maps and notes the entrance is
through the hollow trunk). "You see nothing
unusual."

THIEF: "I climb the tree."

GM: "Looking down you can see the trunk is
hollow."

Whereupon the party gets excited. The Fighter will
probably lower himself down the trunk by tying a rope
to the top branches to be followed by the party. They
will find themselves in a dungeon passage. They look
in all directions and the GM tells them what they can
see. From this they explore the passages until they
come across a door.

GM: "The door is a solid wooden door with the
inscription 'KEEP OUT canmd on it"

FIGHTER: "I charge the door."

DM: (Shakes dice to detennine whether it opens

or not— it does.) "You burst through the door into a
12' square room. In the far left comer is a wooden
box. Standing over it is a man-sized creature wrapped
in rotting linen. It is advancing menacingly towards
you."

The party decides to fight the Mummy they have
encountered. Battles are decided by rolling dice, but
bonuses are given for a character's strength and the
type of weapon and armour he is using. They defeat
the Mummy and open the box to find 200 gold coins
although the Wizard is seriously injured.

At the next door they unknowingly enter a magic
room. On entering, a darkness fills the room and
clears some seconds later. Upon leaving they notice
that they have just left a T ransportation Chamber and
that they are now lost in the underground catacombs.

The GM, of course, knows exactly where they are
but, as they cannot see his maps, they must find their
own way out by exploring only, keeping their own
mapping notes as they go. Eventually they will either
find their own way out or die in the attempt. If they do
find their way out they will call it quits for that
evening's play but can use the same characters to
enter the same dungeon next week. However, their
characters will now be richer and more powerful.

Traveller is a game similar in concept but set in a
science fiction world. Adventures from Star Trek,
Star Wars, Alien, Doctor Who, etc. can all be put
together using the Traveller rules. Coupled with this.
Traveller is less expensive than other RPGs, the
basic set costing £5.95.

ffuneOuesr appeared after DiD and attempted to
be more of a complete fantasy world, a product of the
fertile imagination of Greg Stafford, the game's
motivating forces and a unique personality in the
games world. RuneQuest pliers feel much more a
part of a "real" Fantasy world in this game, whereas
D & D is comparatively unstructured.

Tunnels & Trolls is an inexpensive Fantasy RPG
which, in spite of its many critics, is popular for its
simpler playing system and its solo dungeons — these
are adventures that can be played on one's own

■\

through a 'programmed' book.

Not all so-called "Hobby Games" are role-playing
games. The hobby comprises games of all sorts from
complicated table-top games played with hundreds of
hand-painted miniatures through strategic board
games to introductory games which are no more
complicated than Monopoly.

In future articles I will cover all these games,
starting naxt month with Traveller, the best-selling
science Fiction role-playing game.

Above: A selectioft
of the rote-pleylng
perrwt covered in this
feeture. We’ll be
interetted to heer
whether feeders
would like to tee
more ertklet on this
subject Why not
drop us e line?

For readers interested in further information, an
“Introduction to Hobby Games" Leaflet is available
free of charge. Please send a stamped, addressed
envelope to: Games Workshop, 27-29 Sunbeam Road,
London NW10 101-965-37131. j

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Lincoln Roid, Peterborough, Cambs.

Tel: 0733*76266

W ILLIAM DOZIER is probably the man
most responsible for the surge of
"camp" tv shows during the mid-
1 960s, with the advent of Batman via the
ABC-tv network in January, 1966.

The overnight success of the twice-weekly
Batman show led Dozier, with his own
Greenaway Productions (in association with
20th Century-Fox TV), to revive the popular
Green Hornet radio show of the '30s & '40s.

The Green Hornet tv show was changed
and updated from the original radio format,
creat^ by George W. T rendle, with hero Britt
Reid (crusading editor and publisher of "The
Daily Sentinel") now zipping about in a
souped-up '66 Chrysler Imperial and battling
organized crime.

A curious side-note is that within its own
mythology Britt Reid was introduced on the
radio show as the son of Dan Reid, the Lone
Ranger's nephew. I guess it's the only way to
go if your uncle was a masked crime fighterl
William Dozier's career took him from law
student at DSC to a motion picture agency
(representing such illustrious names as Erie
Stanley Gardner, James Hilton, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, etc) to Paramount Studios, as
head of the story and writer department.
From Paramount ho went to RKO as executive
assistant to the head of production during the
period when such outstanding dramas as
Notorious, The Spiral Staircase and Murder
My Sweet were being made.

In the early '50s, Dozier went to CBS in New
York as executive producer of dramatic
programmes, where he supervised
production of Studio One, Daitger and
Suspense, before becoming head of
Hollywood programming for the early days of
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Twilight Zone and
Have Gun — Will Travel.

In 1959 he shifted over to Columbia
Pictures as vice-president in charge of
production for Columbia's tv subsidiary.
Screen Gems. Under this aegis Dozier
produced such small-screen favourites as
Bewitched, Donna Reed Show and The
Farmer's Daughter. He left Screen Gems in

1 964 ("I got tired of running big organizations
for other people, and decided to run a small
one for myself.") and formed Greenway
Productions in partnership with 20th Century-
Fox Television. Batman and The Green
Hornet followed.

Listed below are all 26 episodes of The
Green Hornet tv series; shot in colour and
filling a "half-hour" slot. The show's theme,
played by Al Hirt, was an updated
arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of
the Bumble Bee." A

THE SILENT GUN (Orig US tv Sept 9 '66)
d. Leslie H. Martinson, wr. Ken Pettus. cast:
Van Williams (as Britt Reid), Bruce Lee (as
Kato), Lloyd Gough (as Mike Axford), Wende
Wagner (as Casey), Walter Brooke (as DA
Scanlon); Lloyd Bochner, Charles Francisco,
Henry Evans. The Green Hornet goes after a
deadly silent gun before a crime wave can get
started.

GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE (Sept 16)
d. Seymour Robbie, wr. Gwen Bagni & Paul
Dubov, cast: regulars; David Renard, Joe
Sirola, Mort Mills. The Green Hornet and Kato
crack a phony accident ring.

PROGRAMMED FOR DEATH (Sept 23)
d. Larry Peerce. wr. Jerry Thomas, from story
by Lewis Reed, cast: regulars; Richard
Cutting, Signe Hasso, John Alver. The Green
Hornet and Kato bring about the capture of a
ring of phony diamond merchants who have
caused the death of one of Britt Reid's
reporters.

CRIME WAVE (Sept 20)

d. Larry Peerce. wr. Sheldon Stark, cast:

regulars; Peter Haskell, Sheilah Wells, Danny

Costello. The Green Hornet cracks a
computer crime wave that has implicated him
as its leader.

THE FROG IS A DEADLY WEAPON (Oct 7)
d. Les Martinson, wr. William L. Stuart, cast:
regulars; Thordis Brandt, Victor Jory,

Barbara Babcock. The Green Hornet uncovers
a missing hood who has killed and assumed
the identity of a wealthy financier.

EAT, DRINK, AND BE DEAD (Oct 14)
d. Murray Golden, wr. Richard Landau, cast:
regulars; Jason Evers, Harry L^uter, Eddie
Ness. The Green Hornet literally blows a
bootleg liquor racket.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER Pt. 1 (Oct 21 )
d. Allen Reisner. wr. Lorenzo Semple Jr & Ken
Pettus. cast: regulars; Geoffrey Horne, Henry
Hunter, Barbera Gates, Maurice Manson. The
Green Hornet discovers that a well-known
health club owner is brainwashing his clients
for criminal purposes.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER Pt. 2 (Oct 28)
d. Allen Reisner. wr. Lorenzo Semple Jr & Ken
Pettus. cast: regulars; as above. T^e Green

Hornet traps the brainwashing health club
owner in his own subliminal suggestion
gimmick.

THE RAY IS FOR KHJJNG (Nov 1 1 )
d. William Beaudine. wr. Lee Loeb. cast:
regulars; Robert McQueeney, Grant Woods,
Mike Mahoney. The Green Hornet foils a
million dollar art heist.

THE PRAYING MANTIS (Nov 18)
d. Norman Foster, wr. Charles Hoffman 8i Ken
Pettus. cast: regulars; Mako, Allen Jung, Tom
Drake. A notorious racketeer turns a
Chinatown Tong against the city and the
Green Hornet in his attempt to extort from
nightclub owners.

THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED (Nov 25)
d. William Beaudine. wr. Jerry Thomas, cast:
regulars; Charles Bateman, Robert Strauss,
Douglas Evans. A local club of big-game
hunters make the City's racket bosses their
prey, intending to crown their hunt with the
shooting of the Green Hornet.

DEADUNE FOR DEATH (Dec 2)
d. Seymour Robbie, wr. Ken Pettus. cast:

regulars; James Best, Lynda Day, Roy Clark.
The Green Hornet clears Mike Axford of a
murder charge.

THE SECRET OF THE SALLY BELL (Dec 9)
d. Robert Friend, wr. William L Stuart, cast;
regulars; Warren Kemmerling, Beth Brickell,
Jacques Denbeaux. The Green Hornet
smashes a dope ring and wins the admiration
of a pretty female doctor.

FREEWAY TO DEATH (Dec 16)
d. Allen Reisner. wr. Ken Pettus. cast;
regulars; Jeffrey Hunter, John Hubbard,
David Fresco. Mike Axford becomes a
reluctant ally of the Green Hornet in a
campaign to break a construction company
insurance racket.

MAY THE BEST MAN LOSE (Dec 23)
d. Allen Reisner. wr. Judith & Robert Guy
Barrows, cast; regulars; Harold Gould,

Robert Hoy, Troy Melton. The Green Hornet
risks capture while trying to urKxiver the
District Attorney's would-be assassin.

THEFmEFLY(Jan6'67)
d. Allen Reisner. wr. William L. Stuart, cast:
regulars; Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Buff Brady,
Russ Conway. The Green Hornet battles a
vicious arsonist who seeks to destroy the
city's life-line and Mike Axford in the process.

CORPSE OF THE YEAR Pt. 1 (Jan 13)
d. James Komack wr. Ken Pettus. cast;

regulars; Joanne Dru, Tom Simcox, Cesare
Donova. Britt Reid is startled by the attack on
his Daily Sentinel by an imposter Green
Hornet using a twin of the rocket-firing Black
Beauty automobile.

CORPSE OF THE YEAR Pt 2 (Jan 20)
d. James Komack wr. Ken Pettus. cast:
regulars; as above. The Hornet's trap for the-
imposter pits Black Beauty against a twin
Black Beauty.

ACE IN THE HOLE (Feb 3)
d. William Beaudine. wr. J.E. Selby & Stanley
H. Silverman, cast: regulars; Richard
Anderson. Richard X. Slattery, Bill Couch. By
pitting one member against another, the
Green Hornet smashes a dangerous criminal
cartel.

BAD BET ON A 469-StLENT (Feb 10)
d. Seymour Robbie, wr. Judith & Robert Guy
Barrows, cast: regulars; Bert Freed, Brian
Avery, Barry Ford. While exposing crooked
cops, the Green Hornet is wounded by police,
and nearly killed by Mike Axford.

TROUBLE FOR PRINCE CHARMING (Feb 17)
d. unknown wr. Ken Pettus. cast; regulars;
Edmund Hashim, Susan Flannery, Mberto
Morin. The Green Hornet becomes involved
in a plot to oust the young Prince of a foreign
power.

ALIAS "THE SCARF " (Feb 24)

d. Allen Reisner. wr. William L. Stuart, cast:

regulars; John Carradine, Paul Gleason,
Patricia Barry, Ian Wolfe. In a wax museum
caper, the Green Hornet and Kato trap a
strangler who's been immortilized in wax.

HORNET. SAVE THYSELF (Mar 3)
d. Seymour Robbie, wr. Don Tait. cast:
regulars; Michael Strong, Marvin Brody, Ken
Strange. A gun that seemingly shoots of itself
comes near putting Britt Reid in prison for
murder.

INVASION FROM OUTER SPACE Pt 1 (Mar
10 )

d. E. Darrell Hallenbeck. wr. Art Weingarten.
cast; regulars; Larry D. Mann, Linda Gaye
Scott, Arthur Batanides, Christopher Dark.
The Green Hornet attempts to thwart the
plans of a power-mad scientist to steal a
nuclear warhead.

INVASION FROM OUTER SPACE Pt. 2 (Mar
17)

d. E. Darrell Hallenbeck. wr. Art Weingarten.
cast: regulars; as above. The Green Hornet
escapes certain death and prevents the
detonation of the H-bomb warhead.

SEEK, STALK & DESTROY (this episode was
only later seen via syndication) d. George
Waggner. wr. Jerry Thomas, cast; regulars:
Paul Carr, Harvey Parry, E.J. Andre, Ralph
Meeker, Raymond St. Jacques. Three Korean
War veterans plot to spring their former
commander, wrongfully accused of murder,
from prison.

BLACK SABBATH • BLOI OYSTF.R COLT
CHEAP THICK • DEVO • DONALD LAGEN • DON FELDER
GRAND FUNK RAILROAD SAMMY HAGAI^* JOURNEY
N AZARf FH • STEVIE NICKS • RIGGS TRUST

COLUMBIA PICTURES TAKES YOU
BEYOND THE FUTURE TO A UNIVERSE
YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE...

A UNIVERSE OF MYSTERY. A UNIVERSE OF MAQIC
A UNIVERSE OF SEXUAL FANTASIES
A UNIVERSE OF AWESOME GOOD.

A UNIVERSE OF TERRIFYING EVIL.

A STEP BEYOND SCIENCE FICTION.

oouMA PicruRes PicaerrTB
Ml fVIVI wniwt - LfiOflARD MOQBL PROOUCnon
HEAVYMCIAL.

nmKHACL GROSS **^DAKOOLDeaiQCLeNeUin
ISCHAK) OOiaen Amxtt MdOL DAN OVATtlOri THOMAS iMvcemvi
-•BeRfSVmQHrSOn VaLBOKAROMOGO. ‘^^INAKRCrTMAN
***tQgRALDP O n EWHJ f1 ‘Tl ELWERSe HMS I Ef l

CinEHIUn *11 ELMER BCRNSmi ^

•PEATUMNQ SONQS SY «

FROM THURSDAY DECEMBER 17th
classic classic classic ODEON ODEON ODEON

HAYMARKO

OXFORD STREET

CHELSEA

KENSINGTON

SWISS COHAGE

WESTBOURNE

GROVE

FROM SUNDAY
JANUARY3. 1982

LASCALA

GLASGOW

hints at, has definite logic — re-writing the
original script out of its stock Star Trekian
format, for example.

Aged 38, David Giler was born in Now York
and raised in Hollywood. His father, the late
Bernie Giler, was a film and television
scriptwriter. He encouraged David to write
when recuperating from an illness. The result
was a tv pilot. The Gallant Men, which Dad
liked well enough to polish up and submit to a
tv combine — giving his son full co-writer
credit.

By the time, he'd finished with Hollywood
High School, San Francisco State College and
the University of California, David Giler had
turned that sick-bed beginning into a career
launch-pad. He followed his father's
typewriter ribbons by supplying various
episodes of both The Man and The Girl From
UNCLE, Burke's Law and Kraft Theatre.

His first movie work was co-writing the
quite execrable screen version of Gore Vidal's
satiric novel, Myra BrOtkenridge, with the
lamentable Mike Same in 1970. Giler, at least,
improved. In between providing The Parallax
View (1974) for Warren Beatty and Fun With
Dick and Jane (1977) for Jane Fonda and
George Segal, Giler made his directing debut
with his send-up script of The Maltese Falcon
with executive producer George Segal as
Sam Spade Jr, in The Black Bird (1975). The

A Starburst Interview
bi Tony Crawley

T he Alien debate— forever fed by

rumours of an Alien N — goes on. Why
was Dan O'Bannon's original script
messed about with? How come certain —
crucial— scenes directed by Ridley Scott were
cut out?

O’Bannon has had his say in these pages.
So, for that matter, has John Brosnan. Not to
mention many readers. At the recent Cannes
film festival I was able to pin down — at long
last — one of the three producers of the
runaway monster movie hit, writer and
sometime director David Giler. He and his
fellow producers, partners all in Brandywine
Productions, have taken a lot of stick for
messing up O'Bannon's work. It was, we felt,
about time Giler spoke on behalf of the
producers. Not that O'Bannon, or maybe
even Starbursters will be overly pleased with
much of what ho has to say.

Giler, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll, it may
be remembered, once suggested they were
perhaps the best people to make Alien
because they knew nothing about science
fiction at all. This proves to be tho<case when
Giler mentions the dreaded term . , . sci-fi?
One the other hand some of what .he says, or

publicity hypo of this one stated it was "a
falcon funny movie." Ho-hol (It was, in fact,
falcon terrible).

Since co-producing Alien (not to mention
re-writing it, uncrodittod, with Walter Hill, his
partner in Phoenix Productions), David Giler
has been working again with Hill, producing
Southern Comfort together among the
Louisiana Cajuns. And the reason, perhaps,
for Giler's annoying smugness at Cannes,
was duo to finishing this EMI film a half-mill
under its 8-million budget. "When was the
last time you heard that?" ho crowed.

The film may provide comfort to O'Bannon
and Co, in that it has absolute nothing to do
with science fiction — not even sci-fi I
"Survival piece," says Giler. "National Guard
Unit. Louisiana in the '70s. People join
originally to get out of the Army. Weekend
manouevres in the swamps. Got lost. Run
into serious trouble with the Cajuns.
Inadvertently violating the territorial
imperative. Quite a tough piece. We hired a
writer to script it. Then wo re-wrote it."

Sounds familiar.

For his next project, Giler (and Hill) are
making EMI's long-postponed The Knight
(originally a Ridley Scott assignment). This,
too, they've re-written and he's overly
delighted to point out it has nothing to do
with sword and sorcery, not that what he did

■BJ

have to say made very much sense.

After this, Giler turns director again for his
second film, an original comedy script of his
own. Which no one, I suppose, will re-write.
Unless it's him.

We met up at Cannes at a fairly crowded
(most enjoyable) EMI lur>ch on the Carlton
beach. There were more than enough people
buzzing around to help Giler avoid
answering — or hearing — certain questions.
But the following tapescript is, I think,
interesting enough . . . David Giler is no Larry
Kasdan, that's for sure. Then again, nor am I.
What's the chances of an Alien sequel?

Well, we've discussed it.

The pmblem would appear to be too many
companies involved. Your and Walter Hill's
Phoenix, your two and Gordon Carroll's
Brandyvvine Productions, Ronald Shusett's
outfit with Dan O'Bannon and of course. Fox.
No, it's just us and Fox.

Who's us?

Us being Walter and me and our ex-partner
Gordon Carroll. Just us. But since the change
in administration. Fox doesn't want to know
about any of the previous administration's
films.

You mean Sherry Lansing is not keen to
sequelise — capitalise on— Alan Ladd's
winners?! find that hard to believe.

Well, I was talking to Gary Kurtz yesterday
and he told me that Fox re-released Star Wars
over Easter In America, to prove that it
wouldn't do any business at the box-office.
And, of course, it did huge business. Fox
wanted to sell it off to television.

You're kidding?

No, it's true, ft's very strange out there. We
were trying to get them to re-release Alien
and they won't do that either. They don't want
to know about anything that they did in the
past.

Or that they didn't do., t
Right.

Would you have to make any Alien II with Fox
anyway?

We would, yes. They won't give it to us. They
won't make it. They won't sell it to us.

Okay, put it another way — do you want to
make a sequel?

I think we should, yeah. I don't know if I want
to do it myself, personally. I have other
planned films. Walter and I have just finished
Southern Comfort, we have The Knight to do,
and I'm planning a comedy later on. But I
think an Alien sequel should be made. If
there's a market for it, ft's a natural. {Pause).
We've got one, in fact.

You and Walter Hill have written it you
mean?

(He nods).

What can you tell us about it? Does it follow
straight on from the last one?

No, we wouldn't start it with the last scene . . .
So the monster doesn't climb back into
Sigourney's lapi

The alien is destroyed 1 1 mean, he went
outside, right. He's blown up. Burnt. Gonel
Doesn 't mean he hasn 't got a brother or
sister, does it?

Well, if you recall in that egg chamber, there
were lots of of other eggs down there. The
other good part about the sequel is that all the
other actors are gone except Sigourney.
[Laugh). So we can start absolutely fresh.

But not just do it all over again, please.

(He doesn't seem to hear. In the ensuing
crush, I don't dare voice the question again. I
fear the answer).

Why were so many scenes cut trimmed and
altered in Alien? For instance, the crucial
scene where Sigourney finds Dallas in the
caccoons . . .

. . . Tftat's funny because that's . . .

Funny? What's funny about it? The scene was
shot wasn 't it? How come it got cut?
ft was shot, yeah, ft didn't look very good.
That's why it was cut.

But it did help to explain things, didn 'tit?
ft wasn't really absolutely essential. People
who don't know about that scene, don’t seem
to miss it. ft was in the novelisation and was
obviously in the script. What's funny about it,
is that Walter and I added that one in. Late.
And shot it and it just wasn't really up to the
standard of the rest of the movie, ft didn't look
good — in the sense of a man hanging there in
a caocoon. Part of our feeling was that we had
to maintain the, you know, excellence in
terms of visuals and production all the way
through.

Not to mention the nastiness . . .

(He laughs).

/ mean it is a thoroughly nasty movie, isn't it?
Quite the nastiest movie in recent years.
Yeah, I'm delighted to hear you say that. That
was exactly the ideal [Laugh), ft's very
strange working on a movie like that, because
your standards sort of change a bit. You look
at something you've shot and you say, 'God
that's revolting I ft's disgusting I ft's parfecti
It's just what we wantl' [He laughs again) ft is
nasty.

What was Dan 0 'Bannon 's original script like.

I know he hasn 't been very complimentary
about what you guys did with d. but let's hear
for once what you thought of his work?

I'll tell you what it was. ft was all men. No
women. They were straight military types.
Talking "Yessir . . . No sir . . . Captain this.
Captain that."

So we have you and Walter to thank for
Sigourney Weaver?

Exactly.

She was the only non-nasty thing in the entire
movie. >-

When we first read it — this is no secret — the
script was not really very good. But it had
this . . . {he mimes the Chest-Burster). Walter
read it first. He call me and said, "I may be
absolutely out of my mind. This script is
absolutely awful, but there's one scene in it
that I think we should buy it and try this one."

I started to read it — and it was very long. I
came to the . . .Well, we used to refer to them
as The Face Hugger, The Chest Burster and
The Big Boy. Well, I came to this Face Hugger
and called Walter and said, "What are you
thinking about?" He said, "Have you come to
the big thing yet?" I said, "Sure, the thing that
comes on his face." "Oh no, no, no, just read
it — keep reading."

So I read some more, it was boring the ass
off me, and then all of a sudden . . .oh god.
We've all heard of great grossing movies.
This was the grossest thing I ever heard it.
The Chest Burster! So I called Walter and
said, "Yeah, you're right!"

What was the next stage— re-writing?

So then we had O'Bannon and Shusett come
into the office . . .The Whale and The Mole, as
we used to call 'em I (Laugh). This was rather
a shock to these two guys, ^th nice fellas,
but sci-fi (sic) buffs, ^rious about it, you
know. They were very offended when we
indicated the changes we'd made . . .
changing their characters completely, to the
truck-drivers-in-space concept. So they didn't

like that we added women, either.

Who decided on the women?

I did that. We were about to hand the script in,
when I said, "Wait a second. Hold it! This is a
studio that's making Julia, The Breaking
Point. You know what we could do? We could
take this Clint Eastwood character and if we
made it a girl, it'd be perfect." So we went
back to the script, changing HE to SHE, that's
all ... for two of the guys. We couldn't have
just one woman.

From what you say of the original, you make it
sound like a dull Star Trek episode — minus
Uhura, of course.

Well, the dialogue was just (he winces) . . .
B-demonstration movie. We felt that if we

il 1/ \

l-"i>

■ .« mC

4 * 1

gif 1

were going to make a science fiction movie,
we should get away from the way they always
talk in such movies, and dress in uniforms of
different colours, you know, with all the
zippers and the flashes. I'm sure that's why
The Black Hole didn't work. I saw it finally the
other day, like two weeks ago, and there they
were . . . the uniforms and the flashes. That
was more like O'Bannon's script. Awful!
Terriblel It was such a huge cheat. The Black
Hole. Oh boyl You go into the black hole and
it's heaven and all they gave you then was the
credits . . .

The one person no one has any complaint
about in Miaa — apart from Sigourney — is the
director. How did a Hollywoodian like you
unearth our Ridley Scott? ' •

I was here. And I saw The Duellists.

You mean Cannes is useful to the film
industryl

Oh yes. I saw The OuelHsts and it looked so
extraordinary. I thought; Let this guy loose,
you know? I didn't know he was a
commercials director, I didn't know who the
hell he was. I just thought. This is the man for
us. Because there was a brief moment when
Walter talked about directing it. But to do
something like Alien is another kinda job.
Walter was story orientated and all the rest of
it — and the kinda patience you needed for it,
the attention to detail and all of that was
immense.

Come to that I suppose you could have
directed it yourself?

It's not my stuff . . . that's what I'm saying. I
am going to direct again. I'm doing an
original comedy script for mine this year. For
Fox. Ridle/s Blade Runner is going to be
good, by the way I was on the set and it's a
very go^ script.

Meanwhile, what's the news of the other film
you're doing with Walter, Sword, which you
inherited from Ridley Scott.

It's gone back to being The Knight. Excalibur
was going to be called The Knights, that's
why we changed it. We've re-wrrtten the
script Ridley had.

Surprise, surprisel

Now we're talking about it with EMI. It has
greatly changed, though, yes, from Ridley's
day.

Does it go under the banner of sword and
sorcery?

No, it doesn't. It goes under the banner of
sword.

Nasty again?

No, no . . . I'm sure it'll be quite tough. The
script is.

A sounds like a medieval version of all those
Yiet vets on a vengeance trip numbers,
coming back from the war, finding their
families wasted and going
out for revenge, or shouldn 't I say that?
{Judging by his face, / shouldn 't say
that). It's more on Japanese lines.

Kurosawa, I mean, not all these ninja
films.

Is that an era that interests you?

Medievals? Yeah, very much. What
appealed to me about it is that we all
grew up seeing these movies.

We grew up seeing Errol Flynn which is
rather different.

But it's still the same general area.

Obviously you have to do something
different. A

This page: A series of stills from the current
Devid G Her project. Southern Comfort. At
bottom left is crew of the Nostromo from
Alien, e film on which GHer served es co-
producer. As the nemes of the crew is one of
the questions in our Christmas Quiz this issue
we won't give the geme eway . . I

our

mcigcizinG^ ju^fc get me

DOCTOR WHO WIMTER SPECIAL: With
this year's Winter Special we have gone for
broke! 52 pag^ of all new materia!. Two
a!!-new comic strips! The secrets of the
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exdusive pictures from the Nationa!
Doctor Who Convention, and !ots !ots
more. An absoiute bargain!

>fxs colourFul GXMzno month!

DOCTOR WHO MONTHLY; Brought to you by the same team who pro-
duce Starburst every month. Doctor Who Monthly is packed with infor-
mation on the tv show, plus comic strip adventures by Britain's top
writers and artists. THE STARBURST ANNUAL; Still on sale, the Star-
burst Annual features 64 pages of all new material
by the Starburst team.

The latest addition to the Star-

burst //net/p. Full colour
throughout, the Starburst series
of poster magazines carries on
the tradition of Starburst Top
quality colour pictures plus fact-
filled features on the stars and
the technicians who produce
your favourite fantasy films.
How have you managed without
them for so long?

In case you are having difficulty locating
any of the Starburst line, we have
provided facilities for mail order. Doctor
Who Monthly costs £4.80 for a 12 issue
subscription or SOp for a sample issue.

The poster magazines are 85p each. The
Starburst Annual can be had for a paltry
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Maldon, Essex. Cheques and POS to be
made payable to Dangerous Visioru. Send
no cashi All prices itKiude postage and
tracking.

editor'll

writers

SlARBUiiT

of motion pktore^

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^aW)-'Wihn\no

AKOLUTON

and Doctor
Who Mon th/y ... and the
Starburst Poster magazines . . . and the Doctor
don't forget the Starburst Annua! . . . oh yeah . . !

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